Chrissie en Ciudad México

dame tus ojos.

2009-11-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

Dame tus ojos quiero ver (give me your eyes, i want to see)
Dame tus palabras, quiero hablar (give me your words, i want to speak)
Dame tu parecer (give me your image)

Dame tus pies, yo quiero ir (give me your feet, I want to go)
Dame tus deseos para sentir (give me your desires so I can feel)
Dame tu parecer (give me your image)

Dame lo que necesito (give me what I need)
Para ser como tu (So I can be like you)

Last night at our house church we sang these words. We sing this song often and I like it. I like the melody. I like the words. But never has it touched my heart the way it did last night, moving me to tears. Because last night the words felt so much more literal.

E is 18. I've only know her and her family for about a month. Her mother and siblings are victims of domestic violence. E and her siblings V and D all have a genetic disorder that has left them nearly blind. Only their younger brother has gone to school because he presents as "normal" and the school would accept him.

D is pretty much mute and cannot answer simple questions such as What is your name? Their mother, J cares for all four of her children plus the youngest, a two year old, who is actually E's child, the result of being victimized. My heart breaks for this family.

As we worshipped last night E flipped through the song book but could not find the right song. She asked me to open the book to the right place and then she opened D's book to the same song. E held the song book really close to her face and tried to follow along.

Dame tus ojos quiero ver.

D held the song book but not knowing how to read or speak just swayed along to the music ever so often turning to me and smiling.

Dame tus palabras quiero hablar.

Never have the words been so real. And so I sat fighting back the tears and praying that God would hear our prayers. That he would give them his sight and his voice.

Dame to parecer.

And that he would make me more like him.

So far we have been able to give them food and a two members of our church are allowing them to stay on their property rent free as well as have given J work at their panadería. They are also a part of our new health project and have seen a doctor but finding people to do genetic studies and fund their eye exams and glasses. We are in contact with a government agency that helps victims of domestic violence so please pray with me that God would hear our prayers and lead us to the right services and assistance for this family.

Déjame ver lo que tu vez (Let me see what you see)
Dame de tu gracia, tu poder (Give me your grace, your power)
Dame tu corazón (Give me your heart)
Déjame ver en tu interior (Let me see you deeply)
Para ser cambiado por tu amor (So that I will be changed by your love)
Dame tu corazón (Give me your heart)

tales from the camión

2009-09-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

i left my house at 7am with what should have been plenty of time to make it to tapo to catch my bus to oaxaca which was scheduled to leave at 9am. it was still dark when i left, however that didn't mean that the bus from my community to el centro would be any less full. i hopped on the bus with my little rolling suitcase, messenger back and travel mug full of earl grey only to find that i was the first unlucky person of the morning. every seat was full which meant i had to juggle all of my things and head to the back of the bus for a bumpy and frustrating ride. fifteen minutes in i was dripping sweat, cursing my need for caffeine as i struggled to keep vertical with only one hand holding on to the bar and my bag had tipped over hitting a lady in the leg, gaining a dirty look from that mujer and was now being graciously held onto by the man in the seat in front of me, the man in which i was ungodly close to.

the bus was stuffed and forty-five minutes later i was still standing but now sausaged in between students in their school uniforms, men in business suits and dealing with a major case motion sickness. when a seat finally opened up at the very back i threw my jacket that i had somehow wiggled out of whilst extreme sweating as if to claim my territory. i wobbly waddled over to the spot and put down my messenger bag and then waddled back for my suitcase thanking the man who was still holding on to it for me. finally, i sat and a seat on the bus never felt so good! until, a very large man in a suit and tie and the hairiest fingers i have ever seen, who had been eyeing me for the last half hour claimed the seat next to me that had also opened up. he wedged himself in taking up his seat and half of mine.

he was already awfully close, so close in fact that at one point i thought, "is this dude, smelling my hair...creepy?!" but no, he was not, instead dude let a huge snore. he was sleeping and every time he would fall asleep his large hairy hand would slowly start slipping from the bar on the seat in front of him and is it would, he would slowly start leaning over on to me until he would wake up with a start and wrap his chubby fingers around the bar once more. i wasn't the only one who noticed and the young guy on my other side moved a little bit over so that i could get out of harm's way but for every scoot to the right i made, big man just fell a little bit more to the right as well until finally more of his weight than i could handle caused me to literally yelp. and that's when the guy next to me and i looked at each other and lost it laughing. and i looked at him, "like is this not the most ridiculous situation ever?" and he looked back at me, "like yes, yes it is the really freaking ridiculous, except when i tell this story and i definitely will, my rendition will include not only a huge, snoring man but also a strange little yelping white girl on a two hour bus ride in which i have never seen a foreigner before."

the large man eventually woke up and got off...two hours after i first got on, so did i, but not before my bus to oaxaca had already left the station.

a.

2009-09-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

i bobbed and weaved through the chocolate like lakes that had replaced our streets,

past the chicken vendor, the catholic church, the huge and ominous santa muerte alter,

i knocked on her door and was greeted with a warm hug and customary kiss on the cheek.

as we sat down with our cafecitos, she just looked at me and began to cry,

"my life is in chaos" she said wiping away tears with scented toilet paper while chain smoking.

cancer, appendicitis, marital troubles, debt, kids, work...

what to say? really, there was nothing i could say

so i just made eye contact, listened, and silently prayed.

for an hour and a half, i made eye contact, listened, and silently prayed,

until her son came in a told us they found their pet bunny had been killed by a stray cat.

more chaos. l. cried and cried. a. told her that she should have been more careful with the bunny.

after the momentary chaos had settled, we prayed together. we prayed for peace, for healing, for the presence of god in their home.

i left just after receiving another customary kiss, bobbing and weaving and slipping in the mud, past the santa muerte alter, the catholic church, the chicken vendor, the little girl in the bright pink dress.

i prayed for peace, for healing, and the presence of god in my home.

reflections on la influenza.

2009-06-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

(i wrote this for the SP staff newsletter and i thought since i have not been very good about the whole blogging and keeping in touch thing i'd post it. i really want to be better with writing, so hopefully this is the start of a more regular sharing of my life and thoughts in mexico city.)

It started out on a friday morning as a bit of a mystery. There was a flu going around in the city and they had shut down the schools as a precaution for a few days, was all we knew. Shabrae, our team leader, bought some face masks for us and we had a good laugh as we put them on and snapped a few photos. On Saturday and Sunday, I started getting my first phone calls and emails from friends and family. “Are you okay? Do you have any flu like symptoms?” my mom wanted to know. “No, I feel fit as a fiddle,” I replied, “No need to worry.” This virus was starting to get international attention. We cancelled our weekend programs, the kids club, the youth group and our house church to be in accordance with the government’s mandate of avoiding groups of people and we were on lockdown.

I told my family and friends not to worry, but the swine flu felt like a snowball rolling down a mountain toward me, getting bigger and bigger the closer it got. As I walked through my community to get water one morning, with my face mask on, of course, I noticed that only about one in five was wearing a similar mouth cover. The paranoia was sinking in and I felt like at any minute some sort of invisible mist was going to sneak up behind me, tap me on the shoulder and say, “swine flu, tag you’re it!”

Our team was taking all of the precautions. We have hot water and soap and were washing our hands like we were doctors scrubbing in for surgery. We had vitamins and anti-bacterial hand gel, face masks that we bought before the entire country “sold out”. But our neighbors, many don’t have hot water, let alone running water. And some because of the mistrust that comes with being burned one too many times by their government, felt that the H1N1 virus was nothing but a government conspiracy and refused to take any precautions.

So as the days stuck inside were adding up and more and more of our home visits, meetings, and church services were cancelled, we began to realize that this was a prime opportunity to reach out to the community and help spread awareness and aid to our neighbors rather than simply waiting it out. After all, what is a youth leadership training program, if we don’t first act as leaders in the community? What is a church built on the foundation of God’s Shalom, if we do not first embody the values that we teach of service and of love?

We started right away planning our outreach strategy and contacting stores and donors. Thanks to many generous donors we were able to give away bleach, soap, and face masks to almost 400 homes during stage one and antibacterial hand gel and vitamins to over 700 homes during phase two with the help of members of our church and other project volunteers. We gave the remaining soap, bleach, and hand gels to the two neighborhood schools to assist in disinfecting the classrooms and keeping all those little niños’ hands clean!

As life started slowly getting back to normal, classes resuming, the city waking up from its long nap, I resonated on two major lessons I learned during this time. The first was that we can think big. We were shocked that we were able to knock on every door in our community in just four hours. And as we figured out the number of people impacted by the outreach, we were amazed to realize that over 5,000 people had been directly benefited throughout the three phases. And finally, as Tendisai and I led the evaluation with a few of our volunteers from the community, I was struck by their words. Each one of them said that they loved going out and serving the community, they loved the way in which we all worked together, supporting one another, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company, but what they loved most of all was that we were putting into practice what we had been learning on Sunday evenings in church, to be the hands and feet of the Lord.

Although it was a frustrating time with many of our projects having to be postponed and rearranged, we were able to use it to serve our community in a new way, learning that we have quite a few neighbors who we can really count on to partner with us in the process of reaching out and caring for the community, we were able to strengthen relationships those people, and alongside them we were able to show the community a little more of God’s heart. Praise God, for his hand of protection over our team, our community and over Mexico City.

four more days

2009-03-11T18:00:00.001-07:00

as the deer panteth for the water

2009-03-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

feeling thirsty

and in a dry place.

CONSIDERING

2008-07-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

resuscitating.

cultures collide. in which i could not have been more embarassed.

2007-10-17T23:01:00.000-07:00

picture this. i'm at 7-11 a couple of blocks from my house. i have just gotten my self a nice cool iced fountain soda. ice is hard to come by around here so i am pretty excited. there are no lids so i take my soda up to the front counter to get a lid and pay. i ask for a lid and the converstation goes as follows...

me: "may i have a lid please?"
cashier 1: "yes, ma'am," as she hands me a lid.
me: "salamat po" (respectfully thank you in tagalog)
cashier 1 and 2: "hehehehe!" at my horrible american accent
me: "i'm learning tagalog."
cashier 1: "blallaalafefnkgnrigringkldglkrkmgldngdfkjgnieo." (a loooooong sentence in tagalog)
me: "not that much," as i stare at her confused.
cashier 1: "blijoirgjigodtjyorjoerjaowjroij." (another long sentence in tagalog.)
me: "pepsi," as i smiled and nodded.
cashier 2: "no, she asked where you are from," he said trying to help clarify
me: "pepsi!!"
cashier 2: "no, WHERE ARE YOU FROM???"
me: "oh, america!" i said backing away and mortified that i told them i was from PEPSI!

I then proceeded to spill some of my soda on the floor and not sure whether or not it was culturally appropriate i asked for a napkin to clean it up myself. i first asked for a napkin and when he looked a little confused, i asked for a tisyu (a filipino word for tissue, so i though.) as i told the story later to my team, emma, our filipino host, started laughing even harder than when i told her that i said i was from pepsi twice. apparently, i first asked them so a femine hygene product and then for some toilet paper to clean up the mess i had made on the floor!

oh the ridiculousness of cross cultural interaction!

on a more seriou note. my training here is going well. i am learning a ton from our staff aaron and emma as well as from my team. please pray that we would finish well and continue to pray for the community of balic-balic. thanks a bunch!! peace and love.

a manila...

2007-09-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

photo by anna strom

i leave today for new servant partners staff training in manila, philippines. this is a picture of the community i will be staying in. this is balic-balic one year ago. we think it will probably look a little different now as the community is under imminent threat of beging demolished by the government and many people have already left their homes to different communities. well, this should be an adventure. please pray for my team and especially for the community of balic-balic. peace and love.

when life gives you lemons, make modern art.

2007-07-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

the gods must be crazy.

2007-07-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

why yes that is a coke bottle that was catapulted through our window, shattering it and then implanting itself into our living room wall...funny you should ask.

but no, god is not crazy, he is good. and if we did not have a coke bottle in our wall right now we would not have had the opportunity to reconnect with some of our neighbors, have been served by our next door neighbor who patched up the window until it can be fixed tomorrow, and we would not be able to giggle all night about being called "urban insurgents" by a perplexed police officer and the fact that WE HAVE A COKE BOTTLE IN OUR WALL.

que raro is what our neighbors each said as they came to inspect the coke bottle. que raro indeed. that really sums up our life here in pomona, QUE RARO!

america, the land of the free---refill.

2007-07-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

"i can't believe you threw away the cup," says the beer bellied man as he smacks his wife's arm. "i could have gotten more coke. They give free refills," he whined. "That's exactly what you need on this fourth of july, sir, more corn syrup," Meghan said under her breath.

i went with some friends to escape the heat at the movie theater. we saw evening, a beautiful film.

currently i'm sitting in my house which i am certain is a least 95 degrees (not exagerating) and i could not feel further away from america. the illegal fireworks sound like bombs outside my window and somehow i feel like i am less in california and more like i am in a war torn country. but then again i rarely feel like pomona is very california...i think that is one of the things i love the most about this place.

those rockies can't shine as bright as you...

2007-06-25T22:14:00.001-07:00

miss you lots lb.

recent life.

2007-04-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

lauren takes graffiti off of the front of our apartment.

little maria, stuck in a tree (right after this she starting crying because she could not get down.)

in a sara sandwhich (that's kelly's eye up above) while visiting reno.

easter sunday we had a bbq in the park.

manual, raul and jose luiz cooking up the carne asada!

Life has been crazy but beautiful lately. i have had opportunities to go and practice my teaching gifts at a few different universities including my trip up to unr to speak to some students about justice. my new job has been challenging but wonderful. and life in the neighborhood has been exciting. we had a bbq last sunday with our neighbors on either side. it was a beautiful time of relaxing and enjoying the day with our neighbors outside of waters ave. thanks to everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers. god has really been moving in our neighborhood and in our household. peace and love.

half nelson,

2007-04-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

awesome.

tonight myself.

2007-03-03T00:34:00.000-08:00

the helicopters are flying above my apartment for the fourth time tonight.

occasionally the spotlight shines into my window.

and i cannot stop my tears tonight because i hate what the sound of the helicopter means.
selfless tears for my community, mingle with

the selfish tears for myself.

and sometimes it hurts so much to have a burden that it seems so few share.

and sometimes it hurts so much to know that i could leave at any moment if life in the "hood" gets too scary but that some of my neighbors will never know anything else.

tears because she is 13 and can barely read. tears because somedays i want to be the girl in the white dress. tears because she haunted by her childhood and can't seem to break free from a life of sin. tears because i just wat to go shopping and not feel guilty. tears because no child should be screamed at that way. tears because sometimes i just want my own room. tears because this place doesn't feel like home. tears because it does.

tears tonight that i can't make stop. selfish, selfless. but not of joy.

and tonight i will fall asleep to the sound of the helicopters while praying and waiting for the joy that comes with the morning.

i hate the laundrymat.

2007-02-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

it's my day off and i'm sitting on an orange 70's style bucket chair in the laundrymat and i hate it. i hate waiting and watching my clothes spin worrying if i put too much soap or not enough while the little girl in the pink jumper next to me screams and whines at her mamí to fix her yo-yo. and why do all of the women stop their washers before the spin cycle and scrub their clothes together--that's what a washing machine is for, it washes them. i hate waiting for a machine, then waiting for the "in use" light to go off, then pulling them out of the machine and putting them into one those plastic coated carts whose wheels are so sticky it won't go straight...hold on a minute, my first load is ready to dry...i'm watching my clothes go around and around and around and i still hate the laundrymat. i hate the way my back hurts because the plastic coated carts with the sticky wheels were all claimed and i had to keep lifting my laundry basket full of wet clothes. i hate how the little boy is crying because his mom trapped him on the folding table knowing his little legs will never be able to reach the floor...it's like a million miles away from him, that floor and his mom ignores his cries by scratching at a lottey ticket. and i'm tired. and i hate the laundrymat...the women shouting levántate and muévete and all those noisy rattling máquinas. but what i hate the most is that here i am faced to confront whether or not i really love these people like i say i do. when i look in his face through the reflection in the dryer door, do i feel for him? honestly, here in this place, i don't think i do--and i hate that. it's here that i ask myself, is it worth it? to live here? to commit my life to god and the poor? it is here where everything that seemed so right gets shaken up and i am just not sure. the sounds of the pac-man game swirling with the shrieks from the girl in the telenovela playing above the wall of dryers don't help to clarify. and then i step outside and i can breathe again and i realize i do love these people, this city--my city and perhaps i was just being dramatic about it all. but i still hate the laundrymat.

and then all of the sudden it has been a month.

2007-02-12T00:08:00.000-08:00

actuallly it had been over a month since i last posted and i am not really sure why. i started a new job that has been keeping me busy but i don't think that is it. and it is not for lack of excitement around the neighborhood, things are definitely happening around here. i think that maybe there is just so much going on it is hard to package it in a tidy little post. but none-the-less life is life, god is at work on waters ave., i love my new job, and i am starting to feel a sense of loss knowing that the internship ends in june. so that is what's swimming around in my head. i hope for more tangible thoughts to come soon.

rosca de reyes.

2007-01-08T23:05:00.000-08:00

on saturday night participated in a mexican tradition on three kings day. we went over to a neighbor's home to celebrate by eating the rosca de reyes (kings cake) and drinking hot chocolate. we had such a fun time laughing and eating and finding out who had the baby in their piece of cake. the tradition is that there are little plastic dolls baked into the cake and if your piece has one of the babies in it then you have to cook and host a party on february 2nd, 40 days after christmas. we found two babies that night so now my next door neighbor will be making pozole and my other neighbor jessica will be making enchiladas. no babies found by the 996 girls. i can't wait until february 2nd, i just love jessica's enchiladas! i loved learning about this tradition and being able to celebrate the culture of my neighbors.

this is jessica showing her baby.

christmas letters.

2007-01-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

excerpts from christmas letters to us from our next door neighbor's children. no changes made.

...you are the kindest people/neibors I hope yoou-all of you have a great Christmas and a happy New Year!!! :) :) HAPPY HOLODAYS

...the chrch school I had so much fun thanc you for taken us to the chrch school. Mery crismis

Hi all you womens over their thank you for the moveis I love it. happy happy happyest chiristmes.

and from the oldest son...

Dear Apartment 3 girls,

Thank you for all the stuff you have done for us, like church. I learned alot of stuff about Jesus and or Lord, and when you helped us alot when we crashed...When we went to sunday chruch we all went my family liked it alot so we might go on sunday and pray that everything goes well in our future. Have a merry christmas.

i hope they know that they give us so much more than we have been able to give to them. and i pray that we can continue to point them towards jesus. merry christmas indeed.

i hope you all had wonderful holidays. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

eye for an eye

2006-12-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

really makes me sad.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/29/hussein/index.html

a nice relaxing night.

2006-12-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

last night as i was settling in to a nice and rare relaxing evening home alone to do whatever i wanted; wrap presents, eat a bag of baked cheetos, watch a movie, the possibilities endless, i got a call from my roommate christy. she gave me the number to my neighbor's work and told me to call him because he needed some help. he had called her because he had her number because his wife had called him from christy's cell phone earlier that day. so i did and he told me that his wife was in a car accident down the street at their kids' school and wondered if i could go over and see if she and the children were okay.

so i immediately grabbed my keys and ran out the door in my inappropriate for the cold, pajamas, where i arrived to my neighbor y and the family she had hit in the parking lot after the children's holiday show. as soon as she saw me she broke into tears and told me that they family was asking for 5oo dollars cash and an additional 1000 dollar check in order for them not to call the police. since y does not have a driver's license or insurance things could have been really bad if they had called the police.

after a failed attempt at convincing the family to take 150 dollars from me and my information as well as y's i was starting to get nervous that this was not going to end well. but in my helplessness i began to pray and as i was praying our other neighbors came driving up with y's two oldest children. they had run home and after banging on my door and shouting my name with no success, they went to our other neighbors for help. when a.j., y's daughter, saw me she ran into my arms and began to cry from fear mingling with a measure of relief.

but even our neighbor's promise to fix their car at no cost at his body shop could not convince the family to trust us. the mother said she had trusted one too many people in her day and would not accept anything but 500 dollars cash and the only reason she had not called the police was because she knows what it is like to be a woman and mother and really felt for y. however, she was losing her patience with all of our begging and bargaining when y's husband's cousin and her family drove up.

they filed out of the car and all of the sudden i heard the woman say, "hey stupid lady" to y's cousin. next thing i know they are hugging. stupid lady, an endearing term i suppose. apparently, the family owns a doughnut shop in ontario and y's family are long time patrons of their shop. finally not only did we now have their trust but between me, our neighbor maria, and their cousin we also had exactly 500 dollars!

after an hour and half in the cold i drove the kids home since y was still shaken up. when i finally got home i abandoned all of my original cheeto eating present wrapping plans and praised god for his protection and work in the life of y and all who were in that parking lot last night. he is so faithful.

la jaula de oro.

2006-12-14T11:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday over 1300 undocumented immigrants in six states were detained by immigration officials and police officers. At numerous meat packing plants operated by Swift and Company in Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, and Utah, undocumented immigrants were arrested and detained. In Greeley, Colorado up to 800 employees were arrested. The Longmont Times-Call reported the story.

Many of the arrested workers’ family members sobbed outside the plant behind a chain-link fence while officers took the suspects away on buses. "He came here illegal, but he came here to work," she yelled. "What are we supposed to do to live now?” "The real issue here is the victims, the U.S. citizens whose identities were stolen." "The kid is going to show up at home, and nobody is going to be there."

Using the photographs and slideshow from Richard M. Hackett and the voice of Julieta Venegas, Lauren created this movie. Consider another opinion to the injustice committed yesterday.

Here are the lyrics to the song, written by Los Tigres del Norte and heard here by Julieta Venegas.

La Jaula de Oro / The Cell of Gold

Aquí estoy establecido / Here I am established
en los Estados Unidos / in the United States
diez años pasaron ya / 10 years already spent
en que crucé de mojado / in which I crossed wet
papeles no arreglados / papers not arranged
sigo siendo un ilegal / I continue as an illegal
tengo mi esposa y mis hijos / I have my wife and my children
que me los traje muy chicos / that I brought since they were very little
y se han olvidado ya / and they have already forgotten
de mi México querido / my beloved Mexico
del que yo nunca me olvido / which I can never forget
y no puedo regresar / and never return
¿De que me sierve el dinero / For what does money serve me
si estoy como prisionero / if I am a prisoner
dentro de esta gran nación? / inside of this great nation?
cuando me acuerdo hasta lloro / I remember until I cry
que aunque la jaula sea de oro / that although the cell is of gold
no deja de ser prisión / it doesn't stop being a prison
Mis hijos no hablan conmigo / My children don't talk to me
otro idioma han aprendido / another language they have learned
y olvidado el español / and forgotten Spanish
piensan como americanos / they think like Americans
niegan que son mexicanos / and deny they are Mexican
aunque tengan mi color / although they are my color
de mi trabajo a mi casa / to my work to my house
yo no se lo que me pasa / I don't know what is happening to me
que aunque sea hombre de hogar / although I am the man of my house
casi no salgo a la calle / I hardly ever go out
pues tengo miedo que me hallen / for fear they will find me
y me puedan deportar / and they can deport me
¿De que me sierve el dinero / For what does money serve me
si estoy como prisionero / if I am a prisoner
dentro de esta gran nación? / inside of this great nation?
cuando me acuerdo hasta lloro / I remember until I cry
que aunque la jaula sea de oro / that although the cell is of gold
no deja de ser prisión / it doesn't stop being a prison

woah...we've got a salad bar!

2006-11-30T14:05:00.000-08:00

a while back i posted about the weird things we have seen or heard about on traffic reports on the southern california freeways. remember, live fish, traveling bbq, a woman playing a ukelele while driving? well, today while sitting in traffic and listening to a traffic report, the d.j. shouted, "woah, we have got a salad bar on the 91. Apparently, a truck had spilled it's entire load of fresh fruits and vegetables and they were strewn across three lanes of traffic. when i came to, after giggling about the mental image of a salad bar of the freeway, i realized that i was at a dead stop in the far left lane but the other three left lanes were speeding past me. and that's when i saw what had my lane at a standstill...a little golden puppy with floppy ears traveling eastbound on the left shoulder of the westbound 10! now, don't get me wrong people. rest assured, i have not gone soft. i still despise dogs and all other animals for that matter, but when i saw that scared little puppy running down the freeway, my heart broke. i called california highway patrol right away and they told me they would send somebody out to get him. i do hope he is okay. but, there you have it, two more random sightings from the commute.

praying for pomona.

2006-11-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

yellow-orange suns shining through early morning haze,
holas mingled with hellos,
church steeples and taco stands,
children laughing, running towards the hum of the ice cream truck,
u.s. and mexican flags both waving in the breeze,
la lavenderia, la virgin,
el tapatio, el grafiti,
pomona named for the ancient roman goddess of fruit,
also called,"the 909,"
the gateway to the inland empire,
little mexico,
p-town,
crime-ridden, gang-infested,
forgotten.

there were two gang-related homicides in our city last sunday night. one victim, a little boy named ethan, had just celebrated his fourth birthday with a party that afternoon before he was shot during a drive-by. Please be praying for this city, that it would begin to be known as,

love filled, city of peace, BEAUTIFUL.

here is a link to the article of sunday's tragedy, http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4703308

chuuuuuuuuseeeee!

2006-11-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

i'm coming down with a cold and i had to wake up very early to be at work by 7 this morning...yes i had to work on saturday. so after work and a servant partners meeting i headed home for a much anticipated nap. and it was a good nap.
and when i woke up, the room was dark and i heard this from our new neighbors whose patio back up directly to my bedroom window...

"Chuuuuuuuuuuuseeee!" said the father. "mande?" asked the little boy. "Chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuseeeee!!" exclaimed the dad. "ummm...shoes?" corrected the little boy. "NO, Chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuseeeee, zapatos son Chuuuuuuuuuuse!" shouted the father.

the father was trying to teach his son the word for zapatos in english, however, i think it was he who needed the lesson from his little child! the whole situation was so sweet and surprisingly nice to wake up to. i just laid there silently listening to this simple father/son interaction, praising god for this place.

home means nevada, home means the hills, home means the sagebrush and pine.

2006-10-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

happy nevada day to all my friends and family in the silver state.

i love and miss you all.

mexico.

2006-10-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

sorry i have not posted since my trip to mexico. i just am not sure how to put in to words how wonderful it was. let's just say i have a lot to pray through and that i could definitely see myself there in the near future. even as i type i am still not quite sure what to write. so i will just say this, the team there is amazing, please be praying for them. the city is beautiful yet broken, also be praying for radical transformation to begin there. my only complaint is that we traveled all the way down to coyocan only to find out the the museo frida kahlo was closed on mondays.

as close as we got to la casa azul.

manicures.

2006-10-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

friday night i sat with 14 year olds j and a on the living room floor as i painted a's nails gold with black flowers because the next day she was going to be a madrina. that's where we were when we heard the gun shot. it sounded like it was coming from the alley. we all jumped but apparently my face must have reflected my surprise from the loud boom because j burst out laughing. "why are you laughing?" i asked. "you're face, you looked so scared!" she said as she continued to laugh. "i don't get scared when i hear gunshots, i'm so used to them." i'll never get used to them." i said as i got up to call the police.

as we sat waiting for the cuticle cream to soak in and the paint to dry, i asked them questions about school, their families, why j fights, myspace, who a likes, music. it was heart breaking to hear j's story of the older brother i never knew she had who is in a california state prison for attempted murder of a police officer, of which she says he is innocent. i fought back the tears as she told me and a that her dad had been deported four years ago and how she has only spoken to him twice since.

during our little nail party, between the fun, the music, and the tough stories, i wondered if either of these girls will be able to reach their full potential. there is just so much stacked up against them. but this was not for me to worry about that night, nor today. instead, i need lift them up to jesus and hopefully have more nights like friday, where they will be safe inside and i can introduce them to him.

please pray for j and a.

p.s. lauren and i are going here tomorrow morning...

please pray for us while we are in mexico city. thanks.

Numbers.

2006-09-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

7. the number of youth from our street that went to youth group at church last week.

0. number of minutes i was late to work today.

30. the date of our meeting with two neighbors to plan the next house meeting on safety.

24. how old i am now which is bringing a little bit of sadness everytime i write it down.

7. number of days until we leave for mexico.

20. the minimum number of tacos i plan to eat while i am in mexico.

3. number of times i have mistaken the l.a. county fair fireworks for gunshots.

1. number of times i have mistaken the l.a. county fair fireworks for somebody on our roof.

Year One Letter.

2006-09-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and family,

I hope this finds you all well and blessed in this busy time where summer is ending and school, work, and life in general is picking up the pace. That is exactly the place I find myself in right now- busy and blessed!

My time with Servant Partners thus far has proved to be everything and nothing I imagined it to be. Everything in that I have been stretched and used by God in ways I had hoped to be but I have also grown and been challenged in ways I never expected. I have no idea how to sum up the first year. So I think I will just share a story of how I have seen God in this past year and also share what I hope for in my second year.

Many of you have read my stories about Marta. Though there have been so many people in my neighborhood and at church that have deeply touched my life while living in Pomona, Marta stands out among them. We met Marta a while back at a birthday party for one of the kids. At the time she was pregnant and shy because she doesn’t speak any English. We would see her every now and then with her babies and would exchange an hola here and there and slowly we began establishing a relationship after my roommates saw her at the bus stop one day and gave her a ride. But our new friendship was really solidified the day Lauren and I came home from work to see Marta in distress.

Marta and her boyfriend Tommy were being asked to leave the apartment they were staying in and were only given a week to find a place to live and move all of their belongings. She had decided to move down the street with her sister but had no way of moving her things except for a shopping cart but could not push the cart and stroller at the same time. So while Christy babysat, Lauren and I helped move her things from one small room to another down the street. That night she began to share about her life and in our visits to her apartment and her visits to our home, she has opened up revealing a history of pain in her short 19 years of life. We know that Marta needs healing that only Jesus can provide and we hope and pray that we can lead her toward the Father, confident that he can give her what she needs to be satisfied. Marta, like many of our neighbors, moved once again this time a little further away, but said she wanted to continue our friendship. Please pray for Marta and that our friendship would bring her closer to Jesus.

Our experience with Marta and other women in our community has made us think quite a bit about the isolation of women in poverty. Many are stuck at home all day with only children to talk to, their boyfriends or husbands working long hours. Some are single mothers and others might as well be single because there husbands are not around. We have just recently started discussing the idea of creating a women’s group, where women could come together weekly for fellowship and friendship. Please be praying for this as well as our community organizing meetings, and our neighborhood ministry during the upcoming year.

Finally, I am excited to tell you all about my upcoming trip to Mexico City. As I think about the future and where the Lord would have me go next, I feel more and more drawn to Latin America. I don’t think my long time love for the Spanish language (and for tacos!) is a coincidence. My time here in Pomona working in a predominately Latino neighborhood and attending our Spanish service at church have further grown my love for the culture and the region. So Lauren and I will be headed to Mexico on October 5th to visit the Servant Partners missionaries living in a slum community outside of the capital. We will just be entering into life with them and seeing what goes on daily as a missionary in Chamalhuacan.

Would you please pray for our time there, that God would start open doors if that is where I should follow Him to next? Would you also consider helping me financially by sending a donation to aid in the cost of the plane ticket and for the missionaries to house us? The total amount I need to raise is $600 for the trip. I also have $400 left to raise for my Servant Partners account for the internship. If you would like to support me financially please email me at chrissiemo@gmail.com and I will let you know the address.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers. I truly mean it when I say you each play an important role in the ministry here in Pomona. Thanks again and God bless.

Peace and Love,

Christine M. Otero

the burnside writers collective.

2006-09-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

i read two articles yesterday from the new edition of the burnside writers collective. the first one made me think. the second one made me cry and think. i don't love every article on this site, but i thought these two were worth a mention. click on any part of the excerpt and read the whole article.

from kingdom confusion by gregory boyd...

My thesis, which caused such an uproar, is this: I believe a significant segment of American evangelicalism is guilty of nationalistic and political idolatry. To a frightful degree, I think, evangelicals fuse the kingdom of God with a preferred version of the kingdom of the world (whether it’s our national interests, a particular form of government, a particular political program, or so on). Rather than focusing our understanding of God’s kingdom on the person of Jesus — who, incidentally, never allowed himself to get pulled into the political disputes of his day — I believe many of us American evangelicals have allowed our understanding of the kingdom of God to be polluted with political ideals, agendas, and issues.

from invitation by kimberly george...

He came up to me on the street corner, probably fifteen years old. “I think he’s sick,” he says, pointing to a man sitting in the nearby bus shelter, draped with a dusty sleeping bag. A woman sits beside him and quietly studies the pavement at her feet. Walking past both of them, I had not seen anybody. The boy repeats his concern. The man under the sleeping bag coughs, doubling over, and the high school boy asks me if have a cell phone to call an ambulance. It seems too extreme, so instead I awkwardly offer change for the pay phone and run to catch my bus.

As I step away, I play my reel of excuses. This corner is full of people who want my money: I could empty my pockets every day if I decide to start responding. I’m a young woman, it’s getting late, and it’s probably time for me to get out of this shady street corner. I have a reasonable list of why this is not my problem- why it’s valid for me to exit a moment where I am invited to care for a homeless man on the corner.

damned ryan's roses and right hand turns.

2006-09-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

i have already told you all just how much i love all things caffeinated, so how is it that i ended up with 16 ounces of hot earl grey running down my leg and soaking into my skirt this morning while i listened to the ryan seacrest morning show? one would think i would know how to handle my beverages, but my red calf and stained skirt beg to differ.

my hips don't lie either.

2006-08-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

we saw shakira in concert last friday. she was amazing. she made me want to move to latin america even more.

flavors 4 u, u will be missed.

2006-08-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

on saturday night after our s.p. meeting in l.a. we decided to head back to pomona to pick up some frozen yogurt and watch a movie at home. and there is no better place in pomona to get fro yo than flavors 4 u. actually there is no other place in pomona to get fro yo...but that's not my point. my point is that we love flavors 4 u. we love that they try to mix the soft serve frozen yogurt on a white cutting board pretending like we are at cold stone. we love that there is actually only one flavor and that they can morph it into 10 different flavors by adding a mysterious liquid. and we LOVE that they have sundaes named after celebrities! especially the lindsay lohan which is fro yo, strawberries, yogurt chips, and graham cracker crumbles (it's low-fat like she is).

so anyway, after explaining to lauren's friend anna just how wonderful flavors 4 u really is we pull into the parking lot only to find the lights out, they were closed! but not just closed, like we will see you tomorrow closed but closed closed...like you will never again enjoy the taste of a lindsay lohan EVER. i almost cried.

i know that no more lindsay lohan is really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but on a more serious note, this is so common in our city. so often businesses fail in pomona. there are entire strip malls and business centers that are abondoned all over our neighborhood. we don't have any chain restaurants or stores with the exception of a few fast food places. this may seem great, no oppressive walmart in our town, no traffic from cosco or a big mall. but it is bad news for residents. small independently owned business cannot survive. the ones that do survive seem to be barely doing so or charge a fortune for their services. for those who have trasportation out of pomona, to walmart, winco, or the nearest mall, their taxes are going to the nearby communities rather than pomona, leaving little tax money in the city. more resources being funneled out of a city which is already so very lacking.

please pray for transformation in the economy of pomona, pray for ethical businesses to come into pomona and pray for local jobs to become available in this place.

quiero justicia en pomona.

2006-07-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

on friday night on the way to pick up some dinner, lauren and i experienced our first checkpoint in pomona. we had heard about how the police were setting up these "sobriety" checkpoints in our city and impounding cars of those driving without licenses, keeping them up to 30 days and charging them money for everyday it is impounded.

driving without a license is wrong, but the police are targeting low income neighborhoods with many undocumented people living in the area by creating these checkpoints and putting it all under the guise of sobriety checkpoints. many of the people they are targeting have few resources to begin with and cannot afford the money to get the cars from the impound after one day not to mention how everyday they tack on more money. also, after taking their cars the police leave them with no way to get home. i have heard that they often set up in front of schools around the time mothers are picking up their children, leaving them stranded with their children at the school, that sounds like an excellent place for a "sobriety" checkpoint to me.

friday's checkpoint was no different. they targeted south pomona from 4p.m. to 1 a.m. on garey ave. just down the street from a food for less, where many people were most likely coming home from work or stopping to pick up groceries to take home to their families. lauren and i went through the checkpoint around 7pm...they quickly asked to see her license...asked sarcastically in spanish, what a girl from colorado is doing around here and sent us on our way; the whole process took maybe 10 seconds. i don't have any idea how he would have known whether or not she had been drinking...afterall isn't this a sobriety checkpoint, don't you think they should check for sobriety??

on our way home around 9 we saw the checkpoint was still up and running. we began to talk about the injustice that was occuring right before our eyes and tears began to well up in those same eyes that were witnessing our neighbors and friends being taken advantage of. we decided that we could not just drive home and forget what was going on, so we turned around and headed toward where we saw many families sitting on the grass watching all that was happening.

we thought they had been the ones left carless on the side of the road and we wanted to give them rides. but in actuality they were just watching it all go down as if it were the evening's entertainment, like it was a movie. we watched with them for a moment and began speaking with a woman who saw her friend get ushered into the area where the police and tow trucks waited. we watched as cars sped through or turned, signaling that they were either safe or caught. we watched as people walked out leaving behind their cars and carrying with them groceries or other posessions they did not want to leave behind.

i felt restless as i went in between silently praying over the situation and feeling helpless. when i saw a man holding four food for less bags, struggling to keep up with his wife who was ahead of him walking with the lighter groceries, i knew we needed to help. so we jumped back in the car made a u-turn and went to the woman who was now waiting at the corner for her husband to catch up. we asked her if she wanted a ride, said we had seen what was happening and wanted to help. she hopped in and we went to pick up her husband who was negotiating with a motorcycle cop that he knew from a long time ago. we almost got in trouble from another officer on a motorcycle for making a right hand turn rather than going back through the checkpoint, but after showing her license and explaining that we had been through the checkpoint once already and we were picking up our new friends, we were allowed to leave.

we drove the couple home, which was about 4 miles away from the checkpoint and would have been a very long walk with all their groceries, and we talked about why their car had been impounded and why we had felt compelled to help. as she was shutting the door, she said, "thank you, you two will recieve your blessing for today."

but i don't want a blessing for myself, i want a blessing for this community. i want a blessing in the form of justice and of grace from the police department. i want a blessing to come from the people in authority realizing that these are not simply cars they are taking but resources for many who are already in need and most importantly they are taking from them, dignity. i want them to see people and not just dollars that they will be getting for the impoundments.

please pray for pomona, please pray for justice here.

here is an article about friday's checkpoint. notice that of the 166 cars that were impounded, only 5 were related to dui's and only 3 of those were people driving under the influence.
166 vehicles impounded in pomona-the daily bulletin

god bless.

2006-07-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

how far would you go to provide for your child?

to the end of the earth?

then why would you try to stop him?

god bless mexico.
god bless lebanon.
god bless guatemala.
god bless iraq.
god bless sudan.
don't you think america has been blessed enough?

ummm, excuse me but can you please move your fish? i'm running late for work.

2006-07-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

i'm starting a running list of the weird things that lauren and i or lauren and i have seen on the various california freeways. i'm not talking matresses, broken headlights, or ladders...i mean WEIRD stuff.

1. approximately 15 to 20 live fish flopping around in the left hand lane of the 10 westbound. (lauren)

2. approximately 5 to 10 live fish flopping around and 10 to 15 dead fish lying in the left hand lane of the 10 westbound and a motorcycle cop standing next to above mentioned fish looking baffled as to his next move. (chrissie)

3. snoop dogg's parents in a royles royce driving down the 60 east with the windows rolled down screaming "where are you from?" to us after catching us gawking at their bad ass car looking quite out of place in the inland empire. (lauren, chrissie, christy and emily)

4. a woman playing either a large ukelele or a small guitar and singing while driving during rush hour on the 10 east. (lauren)

5. a large bowl of tossed salad on the 10 west near downtown l.a. (okay so we didn't see this first hand but a bunch of people called into a radio show about sighting this salad and it makes us laugh so so much)

6. large electric signs that say conserve energy flex your power on about every freeway in the southland. it took about a week before we found out what they are advertising...flex your power

7. 4 pinatas on the 57 north. (lauren)

8. a traveling bbq pit complete with the smell of meat grilling in bbq sauce and a roll of paper towels blowing in the wind on the 10 west just past the 605. (chrissie)

to be continued...

dinner and dancing.

2006-07-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

last saturday lauren and i went to visit marta. we hadn't seen her since the week we helped her move. we stayed and talked for about an hour and we invited her over for dinner on Wednesday night. as we were preparing the dinner last night we were nervous that she wouldn't show up but at 7:30 she arrived with her two babies. we ended up having a good dinner and then she stayed and watched so you think you can dance with us. good thing dacing is a universal language since marta doesn't speak english! we talked and talked about girl stuff and her life and the ever pressing question of all our neighbors (why we don't have boyfriends and why we live together even though we aren't related!). marta kept telling us how good it is to have friends to talk to. her boyfriend knows less spanish than us and so it is hard for them to communicate. that is when he is actually around. usually she is stuck in her apartement alone with her two children while he is working 16 hour days. i am really excited for our new and developing friendship with marta. from the stories she tells us it is clear that she needs friends and from the brokeness of her past it is even more clear how much she needs jesus.

if you would, pray for marta. pray that she would begin to see the brokeness in her life for what it is and that she would begin to seek after jesus. pray also for us that we would be a reflection of god with both our actions and our words.

farewell my friend...

2006-07-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

nearly three years ago kelly and i drove 3.5 hours to emeryville, california from reno to visit the beautiful bargain home store, ikea. we went so that kelly could buy a bed and some other things that i cannot remember now because it has been three years, but i came back with only two small items, a lamp and angelica. angelica and chuckie were impulse buys for kelly and i. on the way out of the marketplace and into the wherehouse there is a small plant section. and that is where i spotted my beautiful darling hawaiian schefflera. it was two dollar plant day and so i snatched up that beautiful plant and headed toward the door. kelly also bought a plant but where her's was ugly and sad looking, my plant stood tall with gorgeous leaves. on our drive back to reno, we decided our new friends needed names. kelly's looked kinda like the green version this cartoon kid's hair...awkard, messy, untamed.

but my plant was so beautiful and confident she was named, angelica. chuckie died just a few months after arriving in reno. but not angelica...she flourished wherever i took her. whether it be in the dorms or at 155 college drive, despite the fact that her nemesis sara herr constantly mocked her, she stood strong. she survived long hot drives to and from las vegas. she even spent a summer in utah. but since moving to california, angelica has been sick. like her owner, she prefers the dry desert heat but unlike her owner she did not acclimate to the southern california humidity. so i am sad to say, that as of wednesday july 5, angelica the hawaiian schefflera is no longer with us.

angelica you will be missed. August 2003-July 2006

*this plant is not the real angelica...she was much more beautiful than this.

"keeping the flame of hope alive"

2006-06-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

Latest statistics indicate that of the 20.8 million people of concern:

8.4 million are refugees who have fled their countries due to civil wars and ethnic, tribal and religious violence and who cannot return home
6.6 million are internally displaced persons - people forced to flee their homes, but who have not crossed a border
2.4 million are stateless people
1.6 million are returnees
773,000 are asylum seekers
960,000 are others of concern

the un refugee agency

sudanese refugees in chad (photo from UNHCR)

palestinian refugee (photo from bbc)

the last convoys leaving from liberia returning those living in exile to their home of sierra leone after the 10 year civil war (photo from UNHCR)

today is world refugee day. but remember the 21 million people living in or returning from exile not just today but always.

...the lord their god...who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. the lord sets the prisoners free; the lord opens the eyes of the blind. the lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the lord loves the righteous. the lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. the lord will reign forever, your god, o zion, for all generations. praise the lord! (psalm 146 7-10)

OLE OLE OLE OLE...ARGENTINA!

2006-06-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

WOO HOO...Argentina beat Serbia & Montenegro 6-0!

Carlos Tevez scored goal 5...he signed my subte pass in Buenos Aires

and has been my favorite since!!

more ups, more downs.

2006-06-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

when lauren and i were returning from work a few weeks ago, during the height of all of the craziness going on in our community, we saw marta talking with a few friends and holding her babies. as we talked with her and held her sweet little girl, she began to tell us about her current predicament. she had been told on the 25th that she had to be out of her room that she rented in a nearby apartment by the 1st. it was may 31st and she had no way of moving all of her things from one apartment to her sister's apartment a few blocks away. her only option was to put her belongings in a shopping cart and push them down the street to the new place. the only problem was she had nobody to care for her two young children and she could not push both the stroller and the shopping cart at the same time. as lauren and i walked to our apartment we discussed whether or not we should help her. the pros...she really needed help and this could a good way to get to know her better. the cons...we were tired physically and emotionally. we had just found out a friend from church who was in the hospital was not going to make it and we still hadn't recovered from the bbq weekend. but as we discussed we that pros definitely outweighed the cons.

so while christy babysat her kids, marta, lauren and i loaded up my little car with all of marta's and her boyfriend's posessions and took them to her new apartment. it took us three trips to move her things from one small bedroom to a slightly larger room. it was hot and tiring, lifting all of her oversized bags of clothing, blankets, and baby things. but the heat and muscle aches were nothing compared to the sadness i felt for her. the apartment we moved her out of was full of bugs and people who obviously did not want her there for one reason or another. but the apartment she was moving into didn't seem any better. when we walked in to drop off the first load, there was a couple in a bedroom with the door open that were finishing certain "things" while four or more children were in the apartment. the apartment was full of people and yet seemed void of any love. it was hard moving marta from one bad place to another...really hard.

after the third load we headed back to our place so she could get her babies but she ended up sitting down and staying for two hours. she told us all about her life, her boyfriend, her family. she kept saying she wanted friends like us. she wanted friends who like to just hang out and talk not just partiers like her friends. at around 10pm she and the kids left...and despite our exhaustion we were so glad that we had entered into friendship with marta.

two days later marta and her friend came over. since marta doesn't speak english, her friend told christy that marta needed $200 for rent. christy got lauren so that lauren could speak directly to marta and get the whole story. lauren explained to her that we all needed to talk and pray about it as a community before we could give her such a large amount of money. despite her pushy friend, marta agreed and said she would come back the next day if she still needed the money.

she did not come back on saturday and we have not had any interaction with her since. friends, would you pray for marta. pray for her living situation. pray that god would protect her and her children in their new home. please pray too for our relationship to grow with marta and pray against any shame she may have because she had to ask us for money so soon in our friendship. we do not want to start our friendship off with her being dependent on us but we also want to make sure her and her kids' needs are being met. would you pray for us to that we would know how to handle our money in this place? thank you all for your support and prayers.

peace and love,

chrissie

the ups and downs of the city...

2006-05-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

it has been quite eventful lately on waters avenue, with lots of highs and a few lows. hmm...where do i start? i guess i will begin with last friday night when we returned home from the grocery store. we had just begun to prep for our neighborhood bbq the next day when i answered the knock on the door to see gebarri, one of the youth we have been getting to know, crying. He told me he had just gotten in a fight with his mom and he wanted to stay at our house because he didn't know where else to go. i let him come in to calm down but we decided that he needed to tell his mom where he was after he relaxed a bit and caught his breath. After about 20 minutes lauren walked him to his apartment and let his mom know that he had been at our place and offered to let him stay for a while and help prepare for the bbq. she aggreed and we had him prep vegetables with us until 10pm.

just in that interaction i had so many emotions running through me. first, it was that i was thankful he came to us knowing that he could trust us and that our place was calm and safe. but as we talked with him and he discussed getting kicked out of school (he is only in the 6th grade) and how he thinks he is bad, i couldn't help but feel a sense of hopelessness. i saw just how much was standing against his success in life. i worried about next time he and his mother fought, what if instead of choosing our house he chooses people who claim they will be his homeboys? despite the uncertainty of gebarri's future, that night he did come to a safe place and we showered him with praises telling him just how good he is at cooking. we reminded him about just how great a speller he is, (at akeelah and the bee he tried spelling every word she did!). and i hope during that evening he began to believe it.

the next day we had the big bbq. we were hoping that many of the parents would come but only a few did. although jackie, gebarri's mother came with her oldest daughter which was exciting considering the events of the night before. even though not too many parents showed we had no problem getting rid of the food because we had around 25 children come with huge appetites! since we decided to focus on the parents rather than the children, they pretty much had free reign of the living room...this meant musical chairs to hip hop so loud i thought my ears would bleed. it also meant head stands against the wall which in turn meant little black footprints all over our white walls. but the footprints went well with the soda and ice cream spills, chips ground into the carpet and one little girl vomiting because she had eaten 7 pieces of watermelon! it was a great time and a highlight of my time so far in pomona.

after we kicked the kids out at 5:30 we decided to have some adult time. so all five of us plus our friend megan and a fellow intern, richard played a game and relaxed. it was a great way to wind down but around 10pm richard decided to head back to l.a. and michelle was going to go get the movie, in her shoes (which is soooo good by the way). we had borrowed a bunch of chairs and tables from the church and we needed to bring them inside, so right as all 7 of us open the door and were heading out, we heard 5 gun shots coming from the alley. needless to say we shut the door and headed into the hallway. and rather than collecting the chairs we called the police and spent the next 40 minutes praying and hanging out in the bedroom. it's crazy how earlier in the day we had a wonderful bbq outside and children were playing in the alley but at night the atmosphere totally changes. although it was unnerving to hear shots near my home, i was not scared. instead i was sad, sad that the same children who laughed and played that afternoon also heard those shots ring out on saturday night...sad once again at their reality. and i was once again struggling with the hopelessness that i fought so hard against when i first moved to waters ave.

i have a ton more to say but this post is entirely too long so with that i will say, to be continued...

Servant Partners

2006-05-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

First Year Interns and staff at CBS on Catalina Island.

deep thoughts from, well....deep.

2006-05-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

so i have been recently pondering the brad pitt, angelina jolie, jennifer aniston love triangle...hey, don't press that back arrow just because i said i was pondering the brangelina phenomenom. don't act like you haven't flipped through their story in us weekly or watched e! no shame people, you know secretly you are wearing your team jennifer shirts or cooing over pics of sweet maddox and his mohawk!

anyway, as i was saying, i have been thinking about their love triangle and how it relates to the concept of morality in our country. when brad and angelina first hooked up everybody immediately made jennifer aniston out to be the victim and thus dubbed her "america's sweetheart". how dare brad pitt choose that weirdo brother kisser over sweet rachel from friends? doesn't he love the way her hair flips out just right as much as we do? people critisized brad for moving on too soon and worse, they speculated that *gasp* he and angelina partook in an extramarital affair. poor, sweet, beautiful, stab you with her razor sharp clavicles, jennifer.

so my question is this. how did jennifer become america's sweetheart and angelina become the evil man stealer, giving jennifer the tag moral and angelina the immoral stamp? why do people view morality only as it pertains to sexual relationships in our country? angelina jolie spends countless hours and resources advocating and tangibly caring for women and children around the world. she is a goodwill ambassador and a humanitarian who is generous with her money and time. is this not moral? now i am not saying that angelina jolie should be the poster child for morality, but i wish we knew a fuller picture of what morality should encompass.

conservative evangelicals have taken a stand against homosexuality calling it immoral and yet have not cared for the aliens [immigrants] as mandated in the bible.

the church has condemned divorce and abortion labeling them immoral and yet there are an estimated 108 million orphans in the world today and few are being cared for in the way we are called to.

our last president was ridiculed and despised for the "blue dress" incident; however, the church reveres our current president despite the fact that up to 10,000 iraqi civilians have died in the "war on terror".

as james writes in verse 1:27, "religion that god our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (niv) should not this be our definition of morality?

P-U-L-C-H-R-I-T-U-D-E. (plkr-td, -tyd) n, meaning great pysical beauty and appeal.

2006-05-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we took 15 kids from the neighborhood to see Akeelah and the Bee. After seeing the movie the week before and feeling the powerful message, I knew the children had to see it. So we got permission from all of the parents, made baggies of popcorn and jelly bellies and made certain we had the correct seatbelt to child ratio (1:1). They were so excited. So excited, in fact, that they arrived at our door at 9am ready to go when we were not leaving until 10:45!

I must admit I was nervous when we finally arrived and found our seats in the theater. (side note, why is it that children have to sit as close as humanly possible to the screen?) But back to my nervousness...as I realized just how many 15 kids actually is, I was unsure if requiring them to sit for an entire two hour film in public was the right thing to do. And everytime a slow or serious part of the movie was playing and they started to get a little fidgety I was sure that it was all going to fall apart. But they were excellent and they loved it! They clapped when Akeelah did well and they even tried spelling the words along with her.

I don't know if they comprehended the heart of the message, but I do know that they had a wonderful time and they are still talking about how they got to go to the movies on Saturday. And on Saturday I hope that the children felt special, fabulous, and most of all loved. Because if they did they will begin to realize the heart of the message and believe it to be true for themselves.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God...And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same..."
--Marianne Williamson

may day.

2006-05-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

yesterday in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters my teammates in pomona and i participated in the boycott. we stayed home from work and refrained from contributing to the economy in any way. lauren and i drove around looking to see how many stores were closed in our neighborhood and we stumbled upon a small protest at city hall. so we called the other girls and joined the protesters. it was beautiful to see the american and mexican flag tied together waving in the air. it was powerful to march with our neighbors chanting, "gobierno escucha estamos en la lucha" and "si se puede". it was inspiring to see young passionate latinos. and it was invigorating to hear the horns of all of the passersby who also say no to racism, ignorance and fear.

here is a great link lauren sent me with a first hand account and pictures from the march in los angeles where over 500,000 people gathered.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/02/la_daywithoutanimmig.html

i've been tagged.

2006-05-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

I AM: ready to leave work.
I WANT: it to be 8pm because that would mean i was at the imogen heap concert.
I WISH: that people would begin to have compassion for others and step outside of their selfishness.
I HATE: when people are small minded.
I LOVE: god.
I MISS: my family in vegas and my friends in reno.
I FEAR: never really being known.
I HEAR: kids playing basketball and getting in trouble for being on myspace during homework time.
I WONDER: if my neck will ever stop hurting.
I REGRET: settling for somebody who didn't treat me with respect.
I AM NOT: sure what i want to be when i grow up.
I DANCE: whenever i get the chance.
I SING: in the shower.
I CRY: when i watch akeelah and the bee.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: a nice person.
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: yummy food and art.
I WRITE: comments on myspace to my friends.
I CONFUSE: most everybody, i hear "you're weird" far more often than the average person.
I NEED: to finish my monthly report.
I SHOULD: be finishing my monthly report.
I START: singing chrissie originals when i get in my car and stop as soon as i get out.
I FINISH: most things i start.
I TAG: Heather.

thanks.

2006-04-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

thanks to everyone who prayed for last saturday's house meeting. the meeting went well. we had about twenty people including us and we separated into two groups, spanish speaking and english speaking. at the spanish meeting neighbors mainly discussed security, gangs, and lack of police presence in the neighborhood. our next meeting will focus on security and what we as a community can do to help make our neighborhood a safer place, such as neighborhood watch groups and fostering relationships between neighbors. the english speaking group focused mainly on building community especially between the currently stratified ethinc groups. their next steps will be to plan a community bbq and discuss other ways to help in building a stronger community. both of these meetings will be coming up in may or june and both will be facilitated by neighbors rather than us. this is really exciting because we want to help raise up local leadership and give our neighbors a sense of ownership over this community.

thanks again to everyone who prayed. and i will definitely keep you updated on the ways god is working in our community.

her reality.

2006-04-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

yesterday, after the gym, lauren and i were greeted by our little friend shalia as we were walking down waters. shalia is one of the kids that has been obsessed with us "three white girls" ever since they saw us moving in. everyday, shalia and the other girls come running towards my car and i can hear them screaming, "i get to hug her first, you hugged christy and lauren first.

shalia lives on the corner of ninth and waters in a two story apartment unit that is suspected to be "the drug house" on our street. there are usually a few people sitting outside, playing cards or chatting, but last night there were a bunch a cars and people outside of her building. i said, "wow shalia it looks like you've got a bunch of visitors this evening." "they're gangsters." shalia responded. "they're all gangsters...except my auntie she's not a gangster."

she's 7 and she is exposed to this! it's not fair and it hurts my heart to see a beautiful girl who is sweet and bright and full of potential experiencing things no seven year old should have to see. but this is her reality. she sees gangsters in her front yard, constant gambling on the other side and garbage lining her street. this is her reality. this is the reality of our neighborhood.

but don't get me wrong, this is not the only reality of our neighborhood. there is much beauty here also. there are wonderful families who love and care for their children. our street is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in pomona with cambodians, latinos, african americans, and caucasians. and there are lots of children...playing and laughing and sometimes even dancing in our living room!

and god is doing a great work here. as we went canvassing the last two weekends people seemed excited for the possibility of bettering the neighborhood. our friends, tom and bree, who have lived on the street for quite a few years, said that community organizing events a few years back were not successful and that people were not open to change like they seem to be now. praise god that he is moving here.

friends please pray for our neighborhood. please pray for shalia and the other children on waters ave. please pray that people would come together for our house meeting on saturday and that god would continue to move in big ways in pomona.

please pray...

2006-04-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

this saturday we are having our first neighborhood house meeting. for the last two saturdays my teammates and three others from our neighborhood and church have been canvasing and inviting all of our neighbores to come.

the purpose of the meeting is to engage our neighbors by having them tell a story about an experience they have had in the neighborhood and allow them to explain what they believe will help to change our community for the better. We hope it will also be a chance for our neighbors to build relationships with each other and us.

i'm excited to see what god is going to do in and through this meeting. it is clear that god is working in our community and i am excited to be a part of the change.

would you please pray...

-that many would come on saturday morning.

-that we would have enough space to fit everyone in our apartment when they do come!

-that relationships would be built and walls separating neighbors would be torn down. (please pray specifically for our neighbors to come together cross culturally especially between the cambodians and the latinos.

-pray against the language barrier as there are no native spanish speakers and nobody speaks khmer (the cambodian language).

-pray that gods directing would be clear and that we would listen to what he desires to change in our neighborhood.

-that people would not be afraid to speak up but also willing to listen.

-and pray that people will be open to an invitation to attend our cell group bible studies.

PRAISE GOD THAT HE LOVES POMONA AND WANTS THE BEST FOR OUR CITY.

thanks and god bless.

today's post brought to you by the color orange...

2006-04-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

i brought my lunch to work today:

frozen mac n cheese,

cheez-its,

carrots,

an apple that is actually more orange than red,

mmmm...nothing like chowing down on some naturally and not so naturally orange colored foods.

forgiven.

2006-04-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

i woke up, showered, drove to work, picked up some starbucks, blah blah blah, thought about how much i have to do this weekend, wished i could just have the weekend all to myself, gotta go to the gym tonight, saturday morning prayer meeting, hair appointment, canvasing the neighborhood for our community organizing, pick up contacts at costco, saturday night justice or just-us meeting blah blah blah...wait stop remember...

"it is finished"

buen dia.

2006-04-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

today is a good day and here is why...

1. i slept about 25 minutes extra and still made it to work on time.

2. i bought a plane ticket to reno nevada for the end of the month and now i get to see these beautiful girls...

laurie, me, heather, tabor

3. bucky covington got kicked off american idol last night and my sweet sweet elliott is still there!

4. i have a box of reduced fat lemon pastry cremes sitting in front of me at my desk. MY FAVORITE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!

5. i worked out with lauren at the gym last night and i'm a bit sore...but it is the good i accomplished something sore not the i can't scratch the itch on my face because it hurts to raise my arm too much sore.

6. i finally found not one but two words on WEBoggle that nobody else found...not even Utahboggalicious or Boggle Witch found lorn and lorns...yay me!

7. According to weather.com it is 71 degrees out and it is only 10:32. woo hoo.

it's the little things in life that bring me joy.

first step: admit you have a problem.

2006-04-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

the entire left side of my body and my right foot are soaked. despite the fact that i brought my lunch to work today, i still had to go to jack in the box for my daily medium iced tea...NO LEMON. so i braved the torrential down pour with no jacket so that i could get my hands on my liquid crack.

but before that beautiful blue straw ever touched my lips, i stepped in a puddle, a HUGE one. and now both my feet squish in my little black mary janes each time i take a step. and then i drove in the rain the .6 miles to j in the b where i stopped at the drive thru and rolled down my window only to realize that the rain was coming in sideways from the east (like movie rain) and the nissan was facing south which basically means the arm of my gray sweater is black and not just speckled black from cute little dainty rain drops- NO it is all black and i can even ring it out from big mean ugly rain drops. my jeans are wet too because not only did i have to roll my window down once, but the woman didn't hear me say, no lemon, the first time. so i had to roll down my window and shout NO LEMON.

i'm wet and i just pulled out TWO LEMONS from my iced tea and i am heating up my 79 cent budget gourmet meal in the microwave. oh, to be me.

what's that smell?

2006-04-03T14:24:00.001-07:00

every inner city and slum that i have been blessed to travel to or live in has been so different. the typical foods sold in pomona including my favorites, tacos, are much different than the pancit i found in payatas, philippines. the sounds of my tampa neighborhood; the bass from car stereos and children playing in the sprinklers on our street sounded very little like the horse hooves pounding on the cobblestone or the man announcing the arrival of fresh eggs over a megaphone in buenos aires. in the philippines i heard the women speaking tagalog at the well outside of my window before the sun had even risen. here the families speak spanish on their patios outside my window before the sun has risen. in tampa 2pm ushered in the next thunderstorm, a welcomed relief from the sweltering sun. 2pm in bs. as. meant buying warm churros and sharing hot mate, a welcomed relief from the bitter cold.

the smell i recall most clearly from the philippines is the mixture of methane and rotting garbage at the dumpsite in payatas. in tampa it is the odor of black asphalt under the burning sun mixed with rain. it is the smell of fuel and industry from the nearby soap factory that i remember when i think back to argentina. here in pomona, just like in the others, there are many different odors and scents. but the one that fills the air of our little one way street most often and what i think i will most likely recall when i have moved on from waters avenue is the smell of manure. yes, my inner city neighborhood smells of cows and manure. now i have never seen a cow or any type of farm animal in my neighborhood or in pomona at all for that matter (except for the chicken our neighbors keep on their patio) but nearly every morning i leave my apartment and head to my car inhaling farm like air.

of all the odors of the cities i have been, even those in payatas, this is the one that bothers me the most. i'm not quite sure why it bothers me so much but it does and this morning was particularly bad- i could even smell it in the kitchen while i was packing my lunch long before i stepped outside. now i don't have a particular afinity for smelling farm animals while making sandwiches but then again i don't have an afinity for rotting trash or dirty asphalt either. so this morning got me to thinking just why i just can't handle the smell of waters avenue. perhaps it is because i won't be escaping the air here for the mountain air of nevada. because i knew in payatas or in buenos aires that in two months or in two weeks i would be coming back to fresh suburban air, but what i smell in pomona seems so much more permanent. i don't think that it has to do with what my nose prefers in the same way my tastebuds prefer the papusas at gualsalmex here in pomona to the spaghetti at jollybee in the philippines. instead i think it has much more to do with the fact that i'm not completely willing to live incarnationally yet. i'm still tied to my old life, to home. but what i must remember is that this is not a short term trip to simulate the incarnational lifestyle. pomona, with the tacos, the horn of the man selling corn, the bounce houses every saturday, with spanish ballads booming through our thin bedroom walls, whether easy and fun or difficult and draining...IS HOME. and all must be counted as blessings. easier said than done, i suppose.

p.s. one thing common to each city i have noticed is the sound of roosters. i never could quite figure out the purpose of a rooster in the city but wherever i go there is sure to be a rooster...read this funny blog from pamie about roosters in the city!!

red letter christians.

2006-03-28T10:33:00.002-08:00

...By calling ourselves Red-Letter Christians, we are alluding to the fact that in several versions of the New Testament, the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting this name, we are saying that we are committed to living out the things that He said. Of course, the message in those red-lettered verses is radical, to say the least. If you don’t believe me, read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

In those red letters, He calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary American consciousness. He calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications for how we think about capital punishment. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he probably means we shouldn’t kill them. Most important, if we take Jesus seriously, we will realize that meeting the needs of the poor is a primary responsibility for His followers.

Read the rest of Tony Campolo's article, "What's a Red-Lettered Christian?"

pomona, parties, and ponderings.

2006-03-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

yesterday laura from church had a birthday party. this wasn't just any birthday party, however, it was a full blown pomona style fiesta...we had sopas, soda, tortilla chips and lots of salsa. there were tacos (three different kinds), a d.j. who came with his whole supply of disco lights, cake, balloons. babies and grandmas alike took to the grass like it was a newly buffed dance floor. and all of this occured...on the front lawn!

check out lauren's flikr photos to see us all gettin' down!

laura's party and this article, the church that doesn't exist, got me to thinking about how blessed i feel to be a part of pomona pres. when we were first told what our ministry would be, i felt a little disappointed. i wanted to choose where i would attend church each sunday. looking back i think i wanted to find a church where i felt comfortable, and then i would "do social justice" elsewhere.

being a part of the spanish congregation is wonderful, it means being immersed in the spanish language, getting to fellowship with amazing people, and having a place in which my neighbors can feel comfortable attending. but it can also be hard at times...for me it means being culturally displaced, sometimes it means i will look stupid or i'll feel confused, it means that i may be "picked on" for eating too many tacos, or called out to give an impromptu testimony or prayer in a language that i am not most comfortable with.

our church is not perfect and if i was to write a top ten list of my own, pomona pres. might not meet all of my requirements. but i am starting to realize, that "oh my gosh" church might not be about me. and this is what our little church does have, people from different ethnicities and cultures, of different ages and different classes, who have a deep desire to love god, each other, and our city. and when you have this, why ask for anything else?

i hope this is what we'll be doin' in heaven...

what a beautiful picture of the kingdom of god!

(this photo was taken by the fabulous lauren brown)

hypocrisy.

2006-03-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

...So has Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat, who said legislation seeking to criminalize undocumented immigrants is not in line with Republicans' stated support for faith and values and "would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."

The debate continues. Thank you Sen. Clinton and my boy Harry for that matter. Please remember, friends, that this is not just a debate among members of the Senate. We will all be affected by this law if passed. TAKE A STAND and tell our government that NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL!

Just as I suspected...You gotta work to get my LOVE!!

2006-03-22T14:13:00.000-08:00

The Five Love Languages

My primary love languages are probably
Acts of Service and Quality Time.

Complete set of results

Acts of Service:		10
Quality Time:		10
Physical Touch:		4
Words of Affirmation:		4
Receiving Gifts:		2

Take the quiz

Take a Stand Against HR 4437

2006-03-21T13:36:00.000-08:00

H.R. 4437 was passed by the US House of Representatives on December 16th, 2005 and was sent on to the Senate, where it is currently in committee. This bill, which was introduced by Rep. Sensenbrenner, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for "other purposes."

HR 4437 would make it a felony offense to be in the U.S. without proper documentation. This would push undocumented immigrants further underground, and increase the potential for exploitation by employers. This bill would also criminalize nurses, teachers, clergy, social workers, and anyone else who aids, assists, or otherwise has regular contact with undocumented immigrants. With the passing of this bill many of my neighbors will be criminals; I will be a criminal. 11 million residents of the United States will become criminals practically overnight if HR4437 becomes federal law and threatens another 30 to 40 million people who aid these residents.

The bill would also virtually turn police officers into immigration agents thus inhibiting those living in the U.S. without documents from contacting law enforcement: imagine the women and children who will suffer from domestic violence for fear of being deported. This is just one example. So many will be exploited and will have no where to turn.

Among other troubling clauses, the bill will make indefinite detention more likely and provides no exception for victims of human trafficking. There are just so many things wrong with this bill.

Please help, demand immigration reform based on reality and respect for immigrants. Contact your senators and other leaders now by visiting the United Farm Workers website and going to the Action Center. It is easy and only takes a minute but in doing so you are taking a stand and telling our leaders that NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL and that everyone deserves DIGNITY and RESPECT!

woo hoo...go blue!

2006-03-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

that's right folks the wolkpack has just won the wac conference tournament securing them their third consecutive bid to the ncaa tournament!! yay for march madness!

NICK FAZEEEEEKAAAAAS!!
GO WOLFPACK!

we finally found rick moranis!

2006-03-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

well, my weekend with gennie is over and it is back to the daily 9 to 5 for me. but what a weekend it was! here's the recap...

1. friday we picked up terry and jamie from their intervarsity conference. we spent the afternoon at santa monica, window shopping, eating delicious thai food and walking the pier...until of course since we bring the ridiculous wherever we go and since we were together it was ridiculous x 4, the ominous cloud that had been following us throughout the third street promenade, finally decided to vomit rain all over us. and of course, i had parked about four blocks away, so needless to say we were soaked. we spent the rest of the day freezing but it was well worth it to spend time with three of my favorite people.

2. saturday, we took control of disneyland. we spent over 12 hours in the park. we even went on some rides twice...we went on thunder mountain (which i almost fell out of) three times! the day was wonderful despite the fact that i got duped into sitting in the front of splash mountain and then got soaked because of it, remaining wet well after dark. the highlight of the day was finally finding rick moranis, we had searched hollywood and the world wode web but we always came up short...funny, how he was pratically in our backyard the whole time...

He even shrank me to pocket size, however, he also shrank lauren and so i never did get to fit in her pocket. oh well, at least we met our hero rick!

This is us rockin our 3-d shades!

Our favorite ride was the new and improved space mountain. it is so fast yet smooth and i couldn't sit still with the techno dance music playing! on our second go at space mountain we decided to each come up with a ridiculous pose for our picture...

however gennie and i were the only ones who were able to successfully execute our poses. michelle almost pulled hers off but unfortunately picking your nose on space mountain is too painful.

disneyland was awesome, however, by the end of the day and definitely by sunday we had figured out that disneyland had actually taken control of us...we felt like 80 year olds sufering from severe osteoporosis...but it was worth it.

for more pictures of our disneyland shenanigans, check out lauren's flickr photos

3. sunday we went out to hollywood to meet our friend josh. we walked down hollywood blvd., saw some of the oscar action (the europeans with the giant binoculors said that tom hanks was there but in the sea of tuxedos we couldn't pick him out), and had lunch at the cat and the fiddle on sunset blvd. despite the helecoptors flying over us trying to get their pics of tom hanks it was a great lunch. we even tried the scotch egg...

what is this horrifying creation? you ask. well, it is a hard boiled egg wrapped in a layer of sausage, battered and deep fried...besically it is breakfast in a ball. while it wasn't the worst thing i have ever consumed, i don't think i will make a habit out of eating the scotch egg. after lunch and visiting the record store of all record stores (amoeba music), we spent the rest of the evening at usc for a servant partners meeting.

4. on monday, i dropped gennie off at the airport. i was sad to see her leave. i miss her and all my old friends but this weekend was just another reminder, that despite the distance, the friendships remain.

ONLY 10 HOURS UNTIL...

2006-03-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

WE ARE TOGETHER AGAIN!

Gennie is comig to visit me and I couldn't be more excited.

Google Images!

2006-02-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

Instructions: Use the picture you like best from the first page of the search results on Google Images.
1. The city and state of the town you grew up, no quotation marks.
2. The town where you currently reside.
3. Your name, first and last, but again, no quotes.
4. Your grandmother's name.
5. Your favorite food.
6. Your favorite drink.
7. Your favorite smell.

This is mine...
1. Las Vegas, Nevada

(Oh baby, it's the Riviera!)

2. Pomona

3. Christine Otero (woo hoo it is really me, i am the second pic.!)

but the stupid thing is subject to copywrite...

so this is my 2nd favorite (the whole first page of christine otero was pretty lame)

(Look Lauren...it's that flippy ski event)

4. Anna Otero

(My New Mexico county is bigger than your New Mexico county!)

5. Burrito (con carnitas)

6. Iced Tea

(Oh you beautiful beverage you)

7. Starbucks in the Morning

(...not sure)

the johari window...

2006-02-27T15:06:00.000-08:00

i stole this from lauren who stole it from greg...so tell me what you think and add to my Johari Window.

today i am wearing my gray nevada hoodie.

2006-02-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

i am wearing it, not because it is casual friday. not because it is one of the only articles of clothing i own that keeps me from suffering from hypothermia in the sub zero temperatures of my cube. not because i think it will bring the wolfpack basketball team one step closer to clenching the wac title, and not because i think the dull gray goes well with my skin tones, nope...i am wearing my unr wolfpack sweatshirt because it is the last thing i have that makes me feel like a nevadan...i have a california address, a california job, a california license and as of this morning i now have california license plates.

oh how i miss the silver state.

Reaffirmed...

2006-02-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

On Saturday evening, after an already emotional and frustrating seminar for my Servant Partners internship, I talked to Gennie on the phone. She was in Roseville with Sara Jochim, Amy and Kelly. They had spent the day shopping, hanging out and looking at engagement rings for Sara. I don't know what came over me but I immediately started crying. Now I am not a crier by nature but every time they passed the phone and I started talking to a new person, I just began balling all over again. And I mean balling where I can't control it and my voice starts getting really high in a failed effort to keep the tears from streaming down my face.

I think what made me most upset, was not that I was left out, but that I had chosen out. By moving to California I had chosen out of these experiences. I had chosen out of being a part of important times with my best friends. As the night went on I started to pity myself even more. How come I don't get to have fun in Roseville? Why don't I get to see Sara try on engagement rings? How come I didn't get to hear Amy plead with us to eat Mongolian BBQ? Why did God make me come to stupid Pomona? blah blah blah...the pity patrol set up camp in my mind and continued their party all night long.

The next morning I had to work, which made me pity myself even more and I continued to sulk all the way to the Chinese New Year Festival and the whole time I sat at the table melting in the ferocious California sun. I decided to treat myself to burrito for lunch before heading into South L.A. for another SP meeting, and you guessed it, I sulked and pitied myself all the way to Baja Fresh.

But my friends, God is good and right there over my Baja Burrito, the Lord reminded me why he has brought me to this place... I am reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne and let me just tell you, it is awesome (I'll save the summary and review for another time, as this post if already way too long). But I came to a line which said, "As Mother Theresa would say (telling the story about throwing starfish back into the ocean even though they continue to line the beach in thousands), "we are called not to be successful but to be faithful."

And then I looked at the book mark my wonderful aunt Rena had made for me laying next to my book on the table and it too was the story of the Starfish Thrower. And there again at my table in Baja Fresh, I began crying all over again. This time, not out of sadness but because I was overwhelmed by God's goodness.

God had not sent me to Pomona and then forgotten about me. He is here and present with me. I shouldn't pity myself that I can't be shopping with my friends, I should be thanking God that I have friends like Gennie, Kelly, Sara and Amy. Amy was the one who introduced me to the real Jesus, a Jesus who loves the poor. Gennie has sent me packages with cookies and my favorite snacks and a little mini Christmas tree because we did not have one in our apartment. And Kelly and Sara have supported my journey financially and continue to uphold me in prayer. Our friendships are different now, yes. But there is no reason to pity myself when I have friends who care enough about me to let me leave and follow God to this place.

This is where I am supposed to be. If for anything, then to throw one starfish back into the ocean. Mother Theresa said, "We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in doing it."

This is what God reaffirmed, that I am here to do small things with great love.

The Starfish Thrower.

2006-02-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

As an old man walked on the beach at dawn, he noticed a young man picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. The old man asked why he was doing this. The youth replied that the stranded starfish would die if they were exposed to the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish," countered the old man. "How can your effort make any difference?" The young man looked at the starfish in his hand for a very long time, then threw it to the safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one," he said.

Marcia Cross Eats Caesar Salad for Dinner...

2006-02-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

this evening we had a servant partners meeting in pasadena where kevin rhodes who is on the servant partners board spoke to us about the four types of love and how the fourth type of love, agape, is central to the gospel and thus central to our faith. it was a powerful and challenging discussion of how this fourth love really does not require emotion but rather action...so i have a ton to take in and wrestle with, but i'm not really desiring to blog it all out quite yet, instead i want to talk about...

i know what you are thinking, "i've seen her somewhere before." and most likely you have. maybe you remember her as dr. kimberly shaw from that 90's beverly hills 90210 spin off, melrose place. or perhaps you recall a certain pimple popping episode of the classic comedy seinfield in which she played jerry's dermatologist girfriend. or then again wisteria lane may come to mind if, perhaps, you have happened to catch a little show called desperate housewives. but not me, no, i have seen this face somewhere else...

before our meeting, lauren and i decided to meet up for some dinner in pasadena at one of our favorite places, the corner bakery. so after we ordered, i, as usual headed to the iced tea dispenser, while lauren went to go grab a table. as i started to head towards the table lauren came walking toward me with a "i just spilled my coke all over an 80 year old man and now he has had a heart attack" look on her face. but thankfully her soda was still in her cup, and that look was caused by her first california celebrity sighting! "the red head from desperate houswives is sitting over there by the window" she stammered. "who marcia cross? no way!" i exclaimed.

sure enough, there she was three tables away from ours, eating a caesar salad (the very same thing i ordered, which in my opinion has too much anchovie paste in the dressing). she sat quietly alone, staring out the window while we gawked and giggled quietly, each taking turns leaning to the left around some woman so as to get a peak. than we watched her get up, walk out the door, j walk across lake avenue (shame on you ms. cross) and head over to the clothing store anthropologie, the very same store i had just been perusing. we then proceeded to call all our friends and family who we knew would just freak out, while we kept our eyes fixed on the store until we saw her walk out without buying a thing, j walk again and walk down the street.

seeing marcia cross was all we could talk about for the rest of our meal and quite frankly the rest of the night...it was exciting, being the pop culture junkies we are. but what we were most excited about was not simply finally having that "california moment" we have both been waiting for. nope we couldn't wait to get home to blog about it.

so friends, there you have it. i saw marcia cross at the corner bakery eating a salad.

Servant Partners, Strike a Pose...

2006-02-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Lauren, Rosa, Lydia and me at a church visitation in Pasadena

(thanks for the pics. Joy)

Gracias a Dios...

2006-02-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

so we have officially started our ministry with the church. lauren and i attended our first spanish service on sunday and our new bible study on tuesday. so i knew it was going to be in spanish but i forgot it was going to be in SPANISH! what's that you say? oh you say, that doesn't make any sense chrissie. well then let me explain. on sunday we walked into the service of about fifteen people and were asked to introduce ourselves. ok, i can handle that, "me llamo chrissie, y soy de las vegas, nevada." pressures off right?...wrong. i forgot that la iglesia is different than church not just in language but in culture too. duh! they asked us both to give our testimonies, which we did, and asked us to sing a song...which we did not. tuesday's bible study was less overwhelming and actually quite fun. mona and manuel host the study and they seem wonderful. everbody seems very excited about getting started and inviting their neighbors and friends. and despite the culture shock and feeling a bit overwhelmed, i know that god is going to do some great things during this time. i just need to keep reminding myself to just jump in and let god work.

would you all please pray for our bible study and that we would be bold in inviting our neighbors and friends? thanks and dios te bendiga.

"I'm a little concerned," says Emily Peine.

2006-02-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

WE JUST CAUGHT MOUSE NUMBER 5! This was our reaction after hearing the sucker run into the glue trap from the kitchen while we were trying to debrief the most intense Grey's Anatomy ever. But then we had to get into action mode, we needed to remove the mouse from our home OUR PLAN OF REMOVAL: to protect ourselves by all putting on boots with capris (because that of course is what keeps you safe from a three inch mouse completely stuck on a tray full of sticky glue) and then screaming like wild banchees while Christy scraped it into a paper bag.

#5 is gone now, we laid him to rest in the alley dumptser behind Waters Ave. Tomorrow Emily is going to talk with her neighbor who drives a yellow volkswagon with mouse ears and a tail . We think she might have some answers on how to make sure we never have to see #6. Oh my goodness some nights this place is just so wrong it's right!

hoping my heart rate returns to normal soon,

chrissie

it could be worse...but it still doesn't feel great.

2006-02-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

yikes, what a week. it all started after finally giving my sermon on ecclesiates for my servant partners internship. the sermon itself went pretty well, despite the few "oh my gosh, twenty faces are staring at me and it's making me want to vomit" moments. the constructive criticism was...constructive and kevin didn't run me out of the church screaming...HERETIC!!

so, grateful to be done, christy, lauren, and i grabbed some coffee and then headed home. we had some great conversation and before bed i shouted, "i feel so free". eight hours later i was parked in the center lane on the 10 freeway being told by the tow truck driver that i needed to stop crying because when he looked at my face it made him want to cry...not feelin so free anymore. so after two tow trucks we finally got my car to the auto shop and my favorite pomonian, bree, drove me home.

not feeling at all free, knowing that i would be stuck on waters ave. alone for the whole day, i took a nap in effort to pass the time. when i woke up i heard music and vacuuming from the vacant apartment next to us. we have new neighbors, yay! we have been hoping that at least one of the two empty apartments in our building would fill up. i mean, how are we supposed to love our neighbors if we don't have any?

so that night after finding out that i broke down on the 10 because i bought bad gas at the arco on holt, and that while checking my car they found a plethora of other expensive problems, i headed to my bed hoping to wake up and realize that monday was all just a bad dream...but there was no way i could awake from my nightmare if i couldn't fall asleep and there was no way i was going to fall asleep when musica latina was blasting through the walls...thats right, remember the above mentioned "yay, neighbors!" well turns out that they like to rock out until midnight. monday lucky monday.

well, with tuesday, came the already posted flying burrito incident and this morning we woke up to find that our apartment has not a drop of hot water. so now i sit here in my cubicle with greasy hair, about $500 of slave labor owed to my father, and i am chewing on some slimy turkey because i can't afford to eat out for lunch and it is slim pickens in our fridge and i am afraid to venture into the cupboards for fear a being attacked by a mouse (did i mention that when the last neighbors moved out they left a few furry friends behind?).

it could be worse though, it could be a lot worse. i'm trying to focus on the good and remember those in prayer who really do have it worse than me...but man, i am still looking for the remote so that i can fast forward through this week.

spencer lange, did you steal my life's remote control?

2006-02-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Anna, I have taken the liberty to find you a rolling back. So now will you pack up and come to California.? I mean, how can you resist a ninja turtle backpack filled with Fuller books?

have you ever seen a burrito fly?

2006-02-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

i have. today after writing the check of all checks to pay for my car (who died on the freeway on monday), i hopped into my car, so worried that i would be late to work that i forgot about something rather important. as i zipped down mission i saw what appeared to be a plastic ziplock baggy flying behind me. then i saw what had the shape of a cheap fork from wal-mart (bought before my boycott). finally in my rear view mirror i saw a left-over, try to cheer me up by buying a build your own burrito at on the border burrito gliding gracefully through the air and then crashing into the asphalt. yes, friends i left my lunch on the roof of my car. rest in piece you beautiful burrito. and will somebody please press fast forward on the vhs that is my week. i don't know if i can take much else.

i've got so much caffeine in my body, i can't even remember my name...

2006-01-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

never again will i drink a starbucks thermos full of iced tea before i even walk into the office and then immediately proceed to buy a non-fat mocha from starbucks before you can say, "you're gonna be sorry for pumping 48 ounces of caffeinated beverages into your empty stomach young lady!" and when i say never, i really mean never again this week because my obsessive personality rears its ugly head in many different ways...but it makes its ugliest face when caffeined is involved.

i just can't stop...but it's not my fault. i blame it on my mom...i mean i know i blame just about everything on my mom, "sorry i didn't call you back my phone was dead. but it's my mom's fault because my mom keeps saying she'll buy me a new one." (i know what you're thinking, "you're 23 you can buy your own damn cell phone!"). or how about when i blame my mom, when i scream out "son of a sea bisquit" after stubbing my toe. (again i know, there is nobody to blame but myself for using that most certainly annoying phrase that should only be muttered by an 80 year old spinster).

but this time i am rightly blaming my mother for my unending obsession with all things caffeinated. i mean, she even admitted to my roommates at the claim jumper when visiting her in vegas over new years that she weened me on iced tea. yes friends, when my roommates were discussing for the hundredth time my out-of control behavior when iced tea is involved, my mother, in public, actually said she weened me on tea. ewwwww!

so today as i walked around the office looking like the poster child for those adult a.d.d commercials because the starbucks barista served me liquid speed, i blame my mother.

i just took the last sip of my third glass of iced tea for the day. thirty more minutes until i'm off of work, i hope i don't start having withdrawals before then.

n*soul 'n' iced tea!

2006-01-19T14:43:00.000-08:00

so i just had lunch at carls jr. with a christian record producer...whose last big projects included carly simon and rod stewert's latest albums...and an aspiring christian techno artist. why you ask, did i enjoy my taco salad and iced tea with these two strangers. and the answer is...i have no freakin clue. man oh man, my life just gets more ridiculous everyday.

so i was just innocently getting some ranch dressing for my salad when the men who were ordering (the above mentioned gentlemen) started joking with me about cutting in line which opened the door to them chatting with me while i waited for my salad dressing. next thing i know, the ceo of n*soul records is asking me to join him and his friend for lunch. i was stuck what could i do so i moved my taco salad and began to eat with them...

lunch was interesting...they both go to mosaic, the church that we attended last week as a part of our church rotations with servant partners, so we talked about the church and i asked them why right wing political comments were so easily mentioned within their service and why their website does not discuss anything even related to the poor. then they asked me about servant partners before delving into the topic of christian techno and dance artists, of which i know nothing about...

anyway, it wasn't monumental or anything but i thought it was just weird enough to post!! how do i get myself into these situations...do i have a tattoo on my head that says "i'm a freak show, talk to me"? oh well! i hope all is well with everyone.

peace and love,

chrissie

This one's for Janel...

2006-01-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the bubbles. They were a hit!!

Viva Las Vegas

2005-12-23T10:55:00.000-08:00

Today after work I am leaving to go to Las Vegas for three days...I am excited to see my family and friends. I am nervous too, however. Thanksgiving was draining physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I'm not sure if I am ready for that again. It was hard feeling stretched too thin, seeing everyone but not spending quality time with anyone. It was especially hard saying goodbye to my friends because I knew that no matter how much fun we had together and even though we could pick right back up again and it was like nothing had ever changed, it would always just be one day or one weekend. Things are changing for everyone and that is a hard dose of reality to take. The drive will be no fun. If it is anything like thanksgiving was, I could be in the car for along time. But I am thankful I have the option to go back and I will definitely take one day with my family and friends than none at all. God has been so good to me in Pomona. I have already seen Him work in amazing ways here and I know that this is where I am supossed to be. So I will try to trust that my relationships will withstand the distance.

The Pomona Girls!!

2005-12-21T17:08:00.000-08:00

This is the Pomona team...Emily, Me, Christy, Lauren, and our leader Michelle!! I stole this picture from her!

November 30th, 2005

2005-12-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

I was asked to post all my writing thus far...this is pretty much it...to any of you who actually read this, here ya go!

Silent, Present and Active!!

Today is my last day as a temp!! Tomorrow I am a Tobacco Health Educator...What is a Tobacco Health Educator you may be asking. Well, I am going to be working with a non-profit called Asian Youth Center that has a grant from Los Angeles County to create programs in effort to keep youth from smoking. So I am going to be creating those programs as well as networking and community organizing to help see the issue of smoke-free parks through the city council of Rosemead. It's not that I am super passionate about saving the world from cigarette smoke, but I am really interested in advocacy and changing unjust policies and I feel this job is going to be a real tangible way and "getting my feet wet" so that eventually I can be a change agent for issues that I really care about.

I'm really excited about the job and will be glad to not have to stare at an excel spreadsheet for eight hours a day! I am a little nervous, however, because I want to be able to fully give myself to my neighborhood and I don't want to be so exhausted from my job that I am not totally engaged in my community.

This idea of giving to my community has been on my mind a lot lately. Sometimes I just feel so helpless living here...what could I possibly give to these poor latino children playing in the street? Do I have anything to offer to Jackie, the unemployed single mom living in the "drug apartment"? As I was at the stop sign on Waters Ave. last night on my way to meet with Pastor Santos, the pastor of the church we are going to be doing our ministry with, I watched a drug deal take place...I mean I saw the money and the drugs be exchanged right there on the street. How could I ever stop this from happening?

But Pastor Santos helped put things into perspective by reminding me that even simply our presence in the neighborhood is giving the community something. He reminded me that I am the light and we are in a dark place. You see my concept of giving is this jacked up middle-class American idea that I have to be giving tangibly and I have been confusing this with what the Lord requires of us to be giving. He does not require tangible gifts but He does require active giving.

So I started asking God how I can actively be giving to my community and He continues to prompt me to intercession when I ask Him how I could actively give. By interceding on behalf of Jackie, the addict who bought his meth or crack last night, or even the drug dealer who is almost always standing on the corner waiting for his next customer, and bringing their needs before God I am actively giving. Not many people know the stories and situations of my neighbors and there are even fewer who will bring them before God. It doesn't at all look like what I had thought my ministry here would look like though and I am constantly having to fight the enemy from creeping into my mind and telling me that my efforts are worthless and uneffective. What could be more effective than bringing things before Jesus?...I certainly have nothing better than Jesus to offer these people!

My roommate Christy gave this devotional last week to our team using Joshua 6. She told the story of the Israelites and how Joshua told them to walk around the walls of Jericho completely silent. And day after day they must have looked so weird just circling this wall not saying a word and not doing anything "tangible" to change the situation. But after days of walking around the wall, God called them to scream and when they did the walls came down! Christy felt that God had called us to be silent right now but to also be present as well. Three white girls on Waters looks strange to everyone around. And like the Israelites we feel that being present while being silent is useless but God had a purpose in calling them to silence. And He has a purpose for us in this time as well, but she also said that there will be a time when God will also call us to scream and the walls of injustice that are inprisoning our pomona neighborhood will come crashing down!!

So would you please pray for me and my team, as we are being silent but present in our neighborhood. And pray also that we would be obedient when God calls us to scream. Thanks again for all your support in my ministry here in Pomona. I love and miss you all!

Peace and love,
Chrissie

November 16th, 2005

2005-12-21T14:12:00.001-08:00

How did I get here???

Hello everyone, it has been a while since I have written a blog, so I figured why not blog when wasting time at my lame temp job with Keystone Automotive. So for anyone who wants to know what Chrissie Otero is doing way out in Pomona read on...

So as mentioned above, I started temping in an office and I am doing office sorts of things...you know excel budget reports, PLBs, PLTs, updating trend charts, converting xml files...etc. Oh sorry you don't know what I am talking about. Don't worry I don't know either...everyday I come to work hoping that I won't look like that idiot temp!! But I really can't complain too much because I have been sitting around for a month wrestling with intense anxiety about money and God's promises of provision. So when it rains, it pours is the old saying and now I have a possbility of like four different jobs...stayed tuned to see what job actually pans out!!
As for life in Pomona it has been quite a roller coaster. We are finally settling into the routine of being grown ups with jobs and responsibilities but it leaves little time for rest. Reaching out to our neighbors is getting more complex now too. By the time we get home from work it's dark and most people are indoors...that coupled with laziness and selfishness with our time makes evangelism difficult.

But we have had some opportunities to spend time in our community. We have been adopted by about six little girls who are constantly stalking us begging to be allowed in the house to play games. We even got invited to Rosa's birthday party. Se turned 12 and they had a big fiesta complete with a bounce house. We spent hours outside of the apartment being the unpaid entertainment for the children and talking with some of the adults...it was such a fun time we didn't want to leave!

One of the most intense moments thus far was in October when a 15 year old boy was murdered a couple of blocks from our house. A few days later we went with some of the members from our church and some local pasters to the place where he was shot to have a prayer vigil. We were joined by the boys parents and friends. There we stood, three white girls on a busy street in the ghetto praying for a boy we would never know when it all of the sudden became this intense evengelism by the parents and a pastor. They were strong Christians and we found out that Bobby too was a Christian who happened to be at the wrong place at the srong time...The paster began to tell about fifteen gang banger kids, all wearing shirts with pictures of their dead friend Bobby, about his life gang banging. He explained how when he was shot in the mouth and he was spitting out his blood and teeth he realized he was dying for something he could never own, he was dying for territory that would never be his...at that point he said the only thing he would ever voluntarily die for again was Jesus Christ. Bobby's father too began to tell of his days in a gang and how he had been shot, stabbed, and run over by a car. Then his mom started explaining about how she too had been running the streets and addicted to pcp. It was crazy...their son had died less than a week before and yet they were so secure in their faith and in that of their son that the only thing they cared about in that time was the salvation of these teenage boys!! I was overwhelmed in so many ways that night...First of all I was having one of those, "How did I get here?" moments. I couldn't comprehend why God would choose me to be a part of that night...I felt a strong sense of humility mixed with fear. Humility because God had chosen me for some reason to know Bobby's story...but fear because I knew that there will be more nights like this one over the next two years. How do I fit in here? What could I ever do to change any of the brokeness of Pomona?

I am still wrestling with these concepts. But I have started to figure out a few things. First, I don't fit in here. I will never look like the people here. I will never be able to fully relate to them. I will never be an ex-gang member. I will never speak their language prefectly. But that doesn't mean I don't have a place here and that I can't care for them well. I won't change the city of Pomona. But I will love the city of Pomona and do my best to allow God to use me in this place.

Well, friends I think I have rambled on enough for now...but please keep the city of Pomona in your prayers...If you would please specifically pray for my street, Waters Avenue. Please pray that we would be able to establish deeper relationships and help to make the Lord's name dwell here. Pray too for the gang activity in our neighborhood. Pray that the 12th Street gang would begin to unravel, for people to reach out to the gang members and that light would enter into the darkness of the gang. Pray too against the hopelessness and despair that dwells in this city. Thank you all for your partnership during this time.

I will do my best to keep you all updated more frequently so that the blogs won't be as long as this one...anyway, I love and miss you all!

peace and love,
chrissie

October 8th, 2005

2005-12-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

I'm actually in Pomona!!

I'm back from the Philippines and have finally moved into my apartment in Pomona!! It was quite a whirlwind of a week but I am so relieved to have a home! I am living with two other girls, Lauren and Christy. They are so great and I am really excited to have them as roomates and especially as ministry partners. We are in South Pomona in a predominately Latino neighborhood. It is definitely a bit culture shock but it is already starting to feel like home. The day before we moved to Pomona from L.A. we were getting really nervous because we had no idea what was going to happen once we arrived (we imagined ourselves sitting in an empty apartment with no electricity, scared out of our minds). Fortunately that is not the case. We don't have electricity but we do have this really great couple, Tom and Bree, who live right across the street from our apartment. They are living incarnationally (like what we are doing), but have been so for like 7 years. They were once Servant Partners interns like we are. They have been hosting us in their apartment, feeding us, and giving us all of the statistics about Pomona.

It is crazy how Pomona has so many parallels to Payatus, where I was staying in the Philippines. Although the poverty in Pomona could never compare to that of Payatus, some of the things people suffer here from are hopelessness and despair which was the same there. Like Payatus Pomona has a very negative stigma. What srtuck me most in the Philippines was how forgotten the people of Payatus are and how very few people who don't have to, actually go there. I have the same sense, the Pomona is becoming a forgotten place with a whole community of forgotten people.So I asked God a few time in the Philippines, "Why did you bring me all the way here, just to leave and serve in California?". But it is starting to make more sense why God sent me to Payatus but right now is calling me to Pomona.

Thank you again for all you prayers while I was in Manila. Please pray for my teammates and me as we begin meeting and reaching out to our neighbors. Pray also that we would find jobs soon as we are all still unemployed. Thanks again for all of your love and support. I will update you when things get more settled here in Pomona.--Chrissie

P.S. Here is a link to a photographer who visited Payatus and another site which is in german but the pictures are good. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing where we were staying and continuing in prayer for that
place.
http://www.davidpaulmorris.com/stories/Payatas/

http://www.payatas.se/bilder2.asp

September 19th, 2005

2005-12-21T14:03:00.000-08:00

Magandang Gabi!!!

Hello everybody!! I hope you are all doing well way over there on the other side of the world!!! It has been quite a week here in the Philippines! I'm not even sure where to start or what to say because I feel as though I have been here for one year rather than one week!! Lets see...physically I am doing well with the exception of food poisoning on Wednesday. Emotionally has been a bit more of a roller coaster! I am staying in Payatus trece outside of the dump site on the edge of Quezon City. I'm sure that means nothing to you but to me it has already become home. I am living with a Philippino missionary family. Pastor Rey is my host dad and he has tw churches in the slum of Payatus. His wife Ate Imee is also a missionary in the slum. They have three children and a new baby that was given to them by a family at the dump site. The family already has seven children and the father has TB so they gave their baby away to save his life. What a blessing he has been to the family and to me!! I just love playing with him and babysitting him (I joke that I am going to take him home in my suitcase!).

My host family is absolutely amazing. Even though they live very modestly in a shack among their impovershed neighbors and have very few posessions, the love they have for each other and for God is so inspiring. I feel so blessed to even know them! With the exception of the cockroaches, the dark and scary CR (bathroom), and the bucket baths, adjusting to life in the slum has not been that difficult for me. I actually kindof like the simplicity of it all. My two teammates think I am crazy that I am not counting the days to return to the states (they are having a hard time adjusting to the philippino lifestyle!!). The people are so great. I really love the way they are so involved in one anothers' lives and they really care for each other. It has been a little difficult adjusting to this notion, however, like when my sandals end up fou houses down because they have no concept of personal property! But I am really learning what it means to have things out of necessity rather than abundance and greed. There is a lot to be learned from their culture!

Not everything has been easy to take in, however. I am overwhelmed by the poverty of the Payatus community. I have never seen anything like what I have seen in Payatus. People live in shacks with dirt floors and tin roofs that do not stand up to the abrasive typhoons. When I visited the dump site I felt as though I was in some kind of nightmare. It was literally a mountain of garbage, bigger than I could have ever imagined. The smell of Payatus is a mixture between methane due to the decomposing garbage, sour milk, and thick pollution. At times the smell is so powerful that it is intolerable. Many residents of the community make their living by scavaging at the dump site. They climb the mountain of garbage searching for bottles and plastics to recycle. I have seen children who look as young as five or six setting off to climb and scavenge. The team has a hard time going through the community directly surrounding the dump site because there is security all around. They don't want white people to see what is going on because there are definitely human rights violations going on. The oppression of the Payatus people is uncomprehensible. So many people young and old are dying because of the lack of sanitation. TB, polio, Typhoid and dengue are just some of the illnesses that the people are suffering with. For those who are healthy enough to scavenge, 60% of their income goes towards medical expenses for their family. For those who are too sick to work, they go without treatment and usually without food. Malnutrition is the norm for the beautiful children of Payatus and education for most children is non-existant.

I could go on and on about the injustice I have seen here in Payatus. Some 85,000 to over 100,000 people are living this way in my community alone. Sometimes it seems hopeless and I reallly don't see how things will ever change. But then I hear stories of transformation and of healing and I know that God is working in this place. But His laborers are few. Even the Christians I have met find it shocking that we would go to a place like Payatus...NOBODY IS WILLING TO GO!!! But I have faith that God will restore His people here and that He knows each one of them by name. Justice will reign for these people if not on earth then in heaven!!!

Friends please pray for the Payatus community. Pray that they would have access to clean running water and that the children would be able to go school. Pray that people would come to this place and give the scavengers jobs so that they would not have to use the dump as their source for a livelihood. Pray that the stronghold of sickness and of despair would be lifted from this place!! Thank you for all your prayers for me and my team but would you please turn them to the Philippinos in Payatus. There are few who know their story and even fewer who are willing to lift them up before the Lord!!!

I love you all and will write to you when I return to the U.S. on the 28th if not before then. Thank you again for all your support!!

Salumat Po!!!
Chrissie

September 7th, 2005

2005-12-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

First Days In L.A.

I have been in South L.A. for almost a week now and I am amazed already by God's awesomeness. I feel so humbled that he would choose me to be a part of what he is doing in this city. I have been blessed with an awesome team to join in this adventure. So far we have studied the book of Nehemiah and learned about pioneering ministry and what we should build our lives and our ministries on...what you ask? Well, Jesus of course. Sounds simple but our time learning about Nehemiah was so profound. I learned so much through my teammates and our director, Kevin, through the scripture. We spent about 25 hours studying the Bible in three days...but not a minute was boring!! We leave for Manila in two days and I am so excited we have been split into two teams and my group is going to Payatas which is a garbage community outside of the city. Today we went down to the city where my team of four will be placed and I already feel a love for the area! I can't wait to start our ministry out there. The three other girls on my team are freaking amazing and I can't wait to live with them and learn from them. Well that is all for now...please pray for our team as we travel and experience the Philippines.
In Christ,
Chrissie

Wal-Mart Woes…

2005-12-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

So on Thursday my Pomona teammates and I went to a screening of Robert Greenwald’s documentary called Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Now before you start reading this and think I am just another Anti-Wal-Mart liberal trying to convince you to shop locally and independently…that’s not it at all. But I must say, I am troubled by what I saw and have been wrestling through these notions of fair wages, health care and human rights. For those of you who have not seen the film, here are some of the facts presented by Mr. Greenwald.

Wal-Mart's reported percentages of workers and children enrolled in Medicaid/SCHIP implies Wal-Mart workers and children cost $456 million to taxpayers nationally through their use of public health programs. Wal-Mart encourages their employees to enroll their families in Medicaid and other government assistance.

In Texas alone it is estimated that they cheated workers out of up to one hundred and fifty million dollars in unpaid wages

Wal-Mart currently faces lawsuits in thirty-one different States for wage and hour abuses potentially involving hundreds of thousand workers.

Federal poverty level for a family of four - $17,650, the average Wal-Mart hourly sales employee earns - $13,861 annually.

Wal-Mart is facing a class-action lawsuit for discrimination against $1.6 million former and current female employees.

These are just a few of the facts presented in the documentary. The film also told the story of factory workers in Shenzhen China. One such worker was “Princess” who asked this simple yet resounding question, “Why do so many work for nothing, while a few have everything?” She also asked “the respectable Wal-Mart customer” if they thought about the workers in these Chinese factories when they went to buy from Wal-Mart.

I can’t get Princess and the other Chinese and Honduran factory workers revealed in the film out of my mind. And now I am asking myself questions like, is just not shopping at Wal-Mart enough? What about living a life of simplicity? But simplicity cannot come at the expense of others because then it is simplicity in order to make myself feel okay about the way I am living and not for the reason the Jesus calls us to simplicity. How many other places that I am shopping at are exploiting their workers? How can I know that the coffee that I drank from Starbucks was bought at a fair price? How do I know the worker who picked the vegetables I buy at the store was treated justly? With knowledge comes responsibility but how much responsibility must I take? Where do I draw the line?…I’ll never be some hippy living in a commune and wearing only clothes I sewed myself! Ahhhh!!! So many questions and so few answers.

Even though I do not have many answers, and that just ceasing to shop at Wal-Mart is not enough, I have been given the knowledge of the unjust ways of this corporation and with that does come responsibility. So from now on I will not patron Wal-Mart stores despite its convenience and low prices. I don’t have to know everything before I take a stand against injustice.

*All facts were taken from http://www.walmartmovie.com/facts.php

Living in a Land of Contradictions

2005-12-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

today i felt so california...i was heading west on the 10 freeway towards santa monica...dowtown los angeles to my right, palm trees to my left. i was sipping on my non-fat mocha listening to some good music. i was on my way to some television stations in shmoozie santa monica to drop something off from my agency. i didn't have a care in the world except for being a bit annoyed by the traffic.

but then i remembered that today was the day that governor schwarzenegger would determine stanly "tookie" william's fate. for those of you who don't know who tookie is, he was the founder of one of l.a.'s most infamous gangs, the crips. he has been in prison since 1981 for the murders of four people, which he claims he is not guilty of. Since being in prison however he claims to be reformed and has written many children's books steering children away from gangs. He has even been nominated the the nobel peace prize on more than one occasion.
so this got me thinking of the reality of this place i am living in and about the issues we have been discussing in our weekly meetings. we have been looking into the old testement to see what god has to say about the poor and about justice. turns out the lord describes a complete economy and justice system. it is a system in which everyone gets their fill, one where depts are cancelled and interest is fair and it is one that unfortunately has never been carried out by his people.

in our discussion we talked about being a people living in a place with one system, a broken and unjust one, and trying to live out the system that god desires. but as i drove on the freeway today, just one day after learning radical things god says about justice, i was completely content to be playing by the rules of that other system. it was easier to sip my coffee and sing along to the music...it was more comfortable to be sucked into the materialism of southern california than to think about what god desires for this city and how i fit into his plan. i am constantly torn in this place between god's way and the system that is in place.

so when i got back to the office i got on the internet and found out that tomorrow morning at 12:01 stanly williams will be executed. the governor denied clemency and tookie must face his sentence. i know that this is not what the lord desires, but i live within this system and i must live with the desicion. but i do not have to agree nor do should i be content with it being an inpersonal concept of a man i don't know who did bad things at one time dying but instead i want to be so discontent with the ways of the world that i am moved to do justice...in the coming days people will react to this desicion in different ways...the city of los angeles could be facing some violence in response to his execution...so i will pray that the lord's system will shine through and that this injustice would not breed more hate and violence. friends would you also pray for the city of los angeles this week, for god's hand of protection over it, for change within the activity of the city's gangs and for believers everywhere to begin to operate under the lord's system of justice. thanks for reading, despite the fact that they are jumbled and uneloquent, i really felt god has something to say through me today. blessings.

chrissie